A 2008 Vancouver Island float plane crash that killed five people was triggered when the plane stalled and dipped while attempting a steep climb over a ridge, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada has found.
The pilot struggled to get the plane back on course but was unable to gain enough altitude before it crashed into deep brush, according to the investigation report released Wednesday.
Investigators determined the plane's body broke apart when it hit the ground near Alice Lake, and exposed electrical wires sent sparks into a pool of spilled fuel, starting a fire that consumed the plane.
The Pacific Coastal Airlines charter flight was ferrying employees of a logging company from Port Hardy.
Nothing was found to indicate that malfunctions of the body or equipment in the Grumman Goose plane were responsible for the crash. However, the plane's emergency location transmitter was destroyed in the crash, delaying rescue efforts for more than eight hours.
Pilot Simon Lawrence, 36, and four passengers -- all employed by Seaspan International -- were killed in the Aug. 3, 2008 crash, while the two surviving passengers were both injured.
The B.C. barge company called the crash "the worst tragedy in its 100-year history."
Only three months later in November 2008, a second Grumman Goose float plane with Pacific Coastal Airlines crashed on B.C.'s Sunshine Coast, killing seven people.
