MICHAEL MUI and STEPHANIE IP, QMI Agency
First posted: Thursday, October 27, 2011 08:06 PM EDT | Updated: Thursday, October 27, 2011 10:47 PM EDT
VANCOUVER -- Motorists along a major traffic artery watched in horror as a small aircraft nose-dived to the ground, bursting into flames as it crashed next to an intersection Thursday.
Six of the seven passengers, the pilot and co-pilot were injured - three of them critically - when the small aircraft went down at Gilbert Street and Russ Baker Way in Richmond, B.C., just after 4 p.m. during rush-hour.
Kim McCord’s husband Jeff, a passenger on the doomed plane, was being treated for facial cuts at Vancouver General Hospital. Others suffered severe burns and broken bones, and two people were in intensive care, according to an ambulance official.
“They’ve only told us he’s in stable condition,” said the shaken woman. “We haven’t been able to see him yet.”
Terry McBratney, district supervisor for B.C. Ambulance Service, said the plane passed through a gap in the intersection, which happened to be empty of vehicles because of a red light.
“It’s a miracle nobody was killed outright. The plane crashed on the road. Any car at all would have been wiped out (had it been in the intersection),” McBratney said.
One woman was taken to hospital after being traumatized from the plane’s wing clipping her car as it went down 900 metres south of a runway at Vancouver Internal Airport, where it was headed after turning back because of a problem.
“She slammed on the brakes. It just missed her,” said McBratney, adding two other witnessed were also “distressed” by the crash and treated by paramedics.
RCMP and airport officials said the Kelowna, B.C.-bound plane called the tower and reported an unspecified problem.
Witnesses said the plane began "wobbling in the air" before it plunged to the ground.
"My friend saw it hit the ground and it went into smoke," said Nancy Li, who was driving past British Columbia Institute of Technology's Richmond, B.C., campus.
"It turned on the side, I didn't realize what was going on and then I saw the smoke."
Black smoke billowed into the sky as emergency crews rushed to the scene, including Transportation Safety Board investigators.
The small plane’s cockpit was blackened from fire and its tail broken off. Debris was scattered along the edge of the roadway, next to an intersection.
Bridges to the airport were initially shut down but re-opened just after 5 p.m. The Canada Line SkyTrain was not affected as of 4:45 p.m. while other transit buses were re-routed.
Vancouver airport authorities said airport operations were not affected by the crash.
Northern Thunderbird Air Inc. confirmed it was their plane that went down but had no further information.
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