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Five dead in plane crash on Vancouver Island

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-04 17:02

Five people were killed in a plane crash on northern Vancouver Island, but two survivors were rescued after one of them sent text messages to a friend with the whereabouts of the crash site.

Lt. Cmdr. Gerry Pash of the Victoria Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre said one of the survivors was injured and the other was in good condition.

The names of the victims were not immediately released, but Seaspan International released a statement saying four of its employees died in the crash Sunday. Seaspan offers marine transportation and shipdocking services at British Columbia ports.

The plane belonged to Pacific Coastal Airlines and was on a 30-minute flight between Port Hardy and Chamiss Bay. It went down 10 minutes into the flight outside Port Hardy just after 7:00 a.m.

Airline officials said they did some initial searching and then reported the plane missing at around 10 am.

Authorities said the plane went down on a hillside dense with foliage, making it difficult to locate.

One of the passengers sent a text message to a friend, saying that he was on a mountain and could see the rescue aircraft but they were unable to find him. The friend then relayed the information to rescue crews; it took rescuers several hours to eventually find the crash site.

"It was less efficient than having the plane's electronic transmission locator working, but more efficient than not having any information," said Pash. "This is one of those searches that could have gone on for days had we not had the cellphone's stuff."

Spencer Smith of Pacific Coastal Airlines said details of the crash were unclear.

"As far as what happened, we can't say; we have no idea at this point why," he said.