Visual impediments led to 2021 float plane, water taxi collision in Tofino, B.C.: TSB report

Visual perception, or lack of it, is the leading factor in a 2021 collision between a float plane and a water taxi in Tofino Harbour, according to a Transportation Safety Board investigation.

According to the investigation findings, both the pilot and captain didn’t “recognise that their routes would conflict until it was too late.”

There were six occupants on board the aircraft, five passengers and a pilot, who all were able to safely exit the sinking plane.

There were three passengers in the water taxi, two passengers and a captain. All three people were injured. Five people in total were sent to the hospital.

The TSB (TSB) officials found several factors hampered the visuals of both the captain and pilot:

• The plane’s left wing during the final turn, coupled with the pilot’s seating position, interfered with the pilot’s view out the left-side window to see the water taxi enter the harbour
• The pilot’s attention was “primarily focused” straight ahead, and their vision was obstructed by the aircraft’s nose and left window post
• The speed at which the vessel was travelling and the relatively stationary position of the aircraft as it approached the water taxi in the peripheral vision of the captain

Following the accident, the TSB issued a marine safety information letter advising Transport Canada that there are no speed limits for vessels in the Tofino harbour and that the local authorities in Tofino were unaware of the Vessel Operation Restriction Regulations and the procedure for implementing speed restrictions.

“The report highlights that if busy harbours that have both marine and air operations do not have designated aircraft landing areas, means for aircraft to signal their presence, and vessel speed limits — there is an increased risk of collision as a result of vessels and aircraft operating in close proximity,” a TSB spokesperson said in an email.

Global News has reached out to the Tofino Harbour Authority for comment.

Isabel Bliss, who was a passenger on board the plane involved in the crash, said the harbour authority needs to heed the recommendations that were made in the TSB report.

“There are traffic operation schemes, whether it is a pilot-operated light in effect or visually marked on a chart or buoys on the water, and it’s shocking to me that Tofino doesn’t have (them) considering the amount of traffic they have,” she told Global News on Thursday.

‘I think it would be a dereliction of duty if the Tofino Harbour Authority doesn’t act on this report.”

The outcome of the collision could have been tragic, had it not been for the efforts of a community member who stepped up when it mattered most.

Ken Brown was at a nearby dock when he saw the float plane crash into the water taxi.

The Ahousaht man untied his own water taxi and rushed to the site of the collision.

As he approached the plane, it started to sink forward. A door to the plane opened and a young boy appeared.

“I extend my hand out and then I tell this little boy, ‘OK, you’ve got to come towards me.’ So he comes towards me. I get him aboard and he’s shivering,” he told Global News in 2021.

Brown then helped the boy’s father and two other passengers onto his boat and brought them ashore. The pilot of the plane was also brought safely to shore.

It wasn’t Brown’s first rescue, either. He was among the first on the scene six years prior when a whale-watching boat capsized. Six people were killed in the 2015 incident after a rogue wave toppled the boat. Brown said he helped save 13 people that day.

He says he is grateful for the praise he’s received from his community, but he is not entirely comfortable being called a hero – with one notable exception.

“I soak it in when my kids call me a hero,” he said. ” I’ll hug them and say, ‘Yeah, your dad’s a hero.’”

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Several First Nations call for review of Tofino harbour after second float plane crash

—with files from The Canadian Press and Jon Azpiri

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