By Andrew de Souza

Five dead in fatal airplane crash

Jun 30, 2011 | 10:58 PM

Five people are dead after an airplane crash in the far north of the province and three of the victims have ties to Prince Albert.

Twenty one year-old Danny Mantyka and 15-year-old Max Clunie are from Prince Albert. Forty four year-old Wade Cooper was the manager at Heartland Livestock in Prince Albert. Wade and his 40 year-old brother, Cam Cooper are from the Senlac area of Saskatchewan.

The pilot was a 32-year-old male from Sherbrooke, Quebec. He also died in the crash and has been identified by family members but his name is not known publicly at this time.

Investigators said the group was involved in a fly-in fishing trip with fishing outfitters Lawrence Bay Lodge.

They had been picked up by a deHallivand DHC Mark II single-engine Beaver float plane built in 1955.

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It is possible that the plan was to pick up more passengers near Buss Lake, but investigators have not determined exactly what the itinerary was, since pilots do not have to register small trips with a federal body.

At around 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre at the Canadian Forces Base Trenton received a distress signal from northern Saskatchewan.

Peter Hildebrand with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said at the time there were records of serious weather events, but it was too soon to determine the exact cause of the accident.

“There was significant weather in the area but because of the lack of witnesses it’s difficult to say whether or not weather played a significant part in it,” he said.

At 2 p.m., a Hercules airplane  dispatched from 435th Squadron out of Winnipeg arrived on scene. The plane confirmed the crash and dropped parachute units to examine the scene.

“They tried to find if there were survivors but this one was complicated because the aircraft went into the water,” said Captain Keith Hoey with the JRC.

“From what we could ascertain there was no chance of survivability on the aircraft.”

Crews then cleared an area for landing and turned the investigation over to the RCMP.

La Ronge RCMP and the underwater investigation investigated the scene and over the course of two days recovered the bodies of the deceased.

Hildebrand said the next step will be remove the wreckage and conduct a thorough investigation.

He said the exact causes would take several weeks to determine and recommendations for preventing a future incident could take months.

news@panow.com

Photo: The airplane involved in the crash, photographed several years ago. Submitted.

Photo of crash site provided by the RCMP