A man who survived a plane crash that killed five people when it went down near Port Hardy on northern Vancouver Island on Sunday says there was a fire onboard the aircraft before it crashed.
Bob Pomponio was one of two people who survived the crash of the Grumman Goose amphibian plane operated by Pacific Coastal Airlines.
They were rescued hours after search teams received text messages one of the survivors sent to a friend with the whereabouts of the crash site.
Pomponio and the other survivor were flown to Comox, B.C., where they were to be met by a heli-ambulance.
Pomponio suffered some soft tissue damage.
Authorities did not release the names of the victims, saying they were notifying their next of kin.
It was Pomponio who was text messaging a friend about where the plane went down. The friend relayed the information to rescue crews, but it took several hours for them to find the site of the crash.
Pomponio said he had to climb a hillside to get a signal.
And, he said, he wasn't too thrilled with Telus for sending him two text messages while he was trying to get help.
Seaspan International released a statement confirming that four of its employees died in the plane crash.
"We offer our deepest sympathies to the families and will be working directly with them and the two Seaspan survivors to provide grief and trauma counselling," it read.
According to the company's website, Seaspan offers marine transportation and shipdocking services to the Port of Vancouver, Victoria and other ports in B.C.
The amphibious plane left Port Hardy en route to Chamiss Bay just after 7 a.m. Sunday. The airline said they did some initial searching and then reported the plane missing at around 10 a.m.
A Buffalo search plane and a Cormorant helicopter were used in the rescue mission.
Authorities said the plane went down on a hillside dense with foliage, making it difficult to locate the crash site.
In one text message to his friend, the survivor said he was on a mountain and could see the rescue aircraft but they were unable to find him.
Pash said the survivor's cellphone could be credited for bringing the rescue crews to the crash location.
"It was less efficient than having the plane's electronic transmission locator working but more efficient than not having any information," he said. "This is one of those searches that could have gone on for days had we not had the cellphone's stuff."
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the province, two people were injured, one seriously, when a small plane made a wheels-up landing in a blueberry field near Pitt Meadows Airport, east of Vancouver. The other six people on board suffered only minor injuries.
