The death of five passengers on board a whale watching tour boat in Tofino is not the first fatal accident for the local tour operator.
Jamie’s Whaling Station is calling the death of five British nationals on Sunday “tragic” and says it will work with the Transportation Safety Board to determine what caused its vessel, the Leviathan II, to capsize.
“Our entire team is heartbroken over this incident and our hearts go out to the families, friends and loved ones of everyone involved,” owner Jamie Bray said in a statement sent to media.
Bray said the vessel had a perfect safety record in its 20 years on the water, and its captain did as well.
The ship sank in an area off the west coast of Vargas Island, not far from where another of its vessels went down 17 years ago.
In March 1998, four people were on board an inflatable boat for a three-hour whale watching tour when they were thrown overboard in rough seas.
A 27-year-old German tourist and the 25-year-old captain drowned, and two women were rescued about two hours after the accident.
The incident happened so quickly the captain didn’t have time to send a mayday call for help.
The vessel, a six-metre inflatable named the “Ocean Thunder,” didn’t sink – but was swamped with water.
While the passengers were all wearing floatation suits, but the captain’s was only partially zipped up.
The male passenger that died did not know how to swim. The operator lost consciousness after being in the water for more than an hour.
The women that survived both knew how to swim. One clung to the side of the drifting vessel, while the other floated face-up to calmer water and was rescued while unconscious.
The Transportation Safety Board made 19 findings in its investigation, including that the operator underestimated the turbulence in the area.
“[The] operator did not fully appreciate the conditions the boat would meet at the time of the accident in the turbulent waters in the vicinity of reefs,” the report read.
A visit to the site showed that even in relatively calm sea conditions, there was a lot of breaking surf and white water.
Bray said it's hard to compare the two accidents, saying the Leviathan is a much bigger ship.
"The 1998 incident happened in a Zodiac that was hit by a rogue wave," Bray told reporters Monday. "It's a totally different scenario when it comes to the vessels."
Two years before that crash, in August 1996, a small aluminum cabin cruiser called the “Sharp Point” belonging to the company crashed into Flores Island at full cruising speed.
The captain, the sole person on board, suffered severe head injuries in the crash. He was air-lifted to hospital in Tofino after being rescued by another whale watching craft in the area.
The TSB investigation ruled that the captain was not experienced in operating that type of boat. The vessel was new and had not been registered.
It said the operator had no recollection of what happened, but he apparently fell asleep while en route to pick up passengers for a whale watching excursion.
In the wake of that accident, the company told the TSB it would reduce the risks generated by having a fatigued operator by reducing the number of days per week the captains would work.
