A passenger on the twin-engine plane that crashed moments after takeoff in northern Saskatchewan on Wednesday night describes two loud noises followed by silence, telling him that both engines had cut out. He remembers watching as the trees below drew closer to his window.
One of the men who participated in the rescue recalls a frantic race to the crash site. And a young man trapped inside the twisted fuel-soaked aircraft, begging him not to let go of his hand as they braved the cold together.
Both men spoke to CTV News Channel on Thursday about the crash and its aftermath. No one was killed. Five people were seriously injured. But all 22 passengers are sure to remember that West Wind Aviation flight from the airport in Fond-du-Lac, Sask., for a long time.
Timothy Fern Jr. said his uncle yelled “Hey” when they heard what they believed to be the engines shutting down. He said there was no time to say anything else. The flight was in the air for no more than three minutes before the crash, he recalls.
“I was looking down and I was noticing the trees were coming closer and closer and closer. So many thoughts were going through my head,” he told CTV News Channel. “Then we crashed. I don’t remember anything from there. I blacked out. When I woke up I was upside down.”
Fern said he wasn’t badly injured, and able to unclip his seat belt. He thinks the person seated beside him “flew out of the plane when it broke.” He remembers the man was standing outside the plane shouting his name.
Fern remembers looking back at the wreckage once he regained his composure.
“There was a lady on the plane. She was stuck there. Her whole face was covered in blood. She had a gash on her forehead. (It was) the worst thing I’ve seen. I’ve never seen so much blood.”
He knew he couldn’t be far from the airport, given the short flight time. Soaked in fuel, he started to walk.
“I followed the moonlight for about 20 minutes until I saw the tower light,” he said. “I had to stay calm. I was in shock. I just kept moving forward.”
He said he ran towards some light in the distance, encouraged by the sound of skidoos and trucks. He remembers having trouble explaining to first responders how to get to the crash site.
The Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the crash. But Fern said he has a theory about what went wrong.
“When we were on the plane a lady and my granny overheard the flight attendant saying it was overweight,” he said. “They knew the plane was overweight.”
Raymond Sanger was part of the rescue effort that day. He said he was at the airport when some boys emerged from the woods, panting and breathing so hard they couldn’t talk.
“They gave us a direction where they were coming from. I had no hesitation. I couldn’t stay there waiting for an answer. I just started running,” Sanger said.
He and his fellow first responders arrived at the crash site in the patch black night. Using the light on his cellphone, he made his way towards the mangled 50-passenger plane and crawled inside.
“I could hear a woman screaming. I could see her moving. She said she was OK,” Sanger said. “Everything was squashed together. The people that were in there were pinned in. There was no way they were going to come out if there was no help for them.”
Sanger and the others went to work breaking open the side of the aircraft. By then, he said, a doctor was on the scene assessing victims.
Sanger said he covered the woman with his jacked while keeping her and another trapped young man talking.
“I know the boy was in rough shape by the way he was pinned into that plane wreckage,” he said. “I was just chatting with him. I kept telling him, ‘If you need anything just squeeze my hand.’ He’d let go every now and then. He was in pain.”
Sanger was freezing and soaked in fuel. The cold eventually got the better of him.
“My hands, I couldn’t hold nothing. I told the boy, ‘I got to go. I got to out (of the plane).’ He said, ‘Don’t go.’ I said, ‘I’ll be right back.’ As soon as I crawled out, somebody took my place right away.”
