'No time to think': Survivor recounts crash landing on glacier

Plane owner Peter Jedynakiewicz said the group accidentally made a wrong turn en route to Pemberton. (CTV)

The three men who miraculously walked away unharmed after their single-engine plane crashed on a glacier were prepared to die in the snow-covered mountains near Whistler.

The trio set off on a short sightseeing flight from Pitt Meadows Sunday morning in a single-engine 1963 Beechcraft Musketeer, but a desperate search was launched after they failed to arrive in Pemberton.

Rescue crews managed to locate the plane Monday afternoon, and the occupants were discovered shortly after near the crash site. The men were dehydrated and tired, but otherwise OK.

Plane owner Peter Jedynakiewicz said the group accidentally made a wrong turn en route to Pemberton, finding themselves flying too low – and unable to climb higher – when they became surrounded by mountains.

He says the pilot, 81-year-old Vern Hannah, made a split decision to put the plane down.

"We lost the airplane but we got life for exchange," he told CTV News, adding that he told the pilot the glacier would be a good spot to try to set the plane down.

"I wasn't scared because panic is your enemy," he said.

"There's no time to think. We tried to manoeuver tied to get out of the situation."

Along with 26-year-old Alan Widelski, their friend visiting from Poland, the men decided it was too cold to stay on the glacier.

The men used a red marker to write their names and the date on the side of the aircraft to alert rescue crews which direction they were travelling, and then started hiking down the mountain in search of shelter from the whipping wind.

At times, the men started to give up hope that they would be found. The trio walked along a river, so they would at least have water and found a small spot to sleep that was out of the wind.

At one point the men made a difficult decision to write their names on their arms, in case they were found dead and their bodies could be identified.

"Basically we had nothing," Jedynakiewicz said. "Just a T-shirt. No food, no water for two days almost."

But thankfully it never came to that. Crews were tipped off to the plane’s location after a snowmobiler sent a photo of it to a friend, asking if it was an old crash site.

The friend then alerted search and rescue crews, who flew to the glacier.

"We waved so hard so many times and finally they saw us," said Jedynakiewicz.

“We cried. It was a huge relief. We were so happy."

The men were flown back to Pitt Meadows, where they were checked over by first responders.

The Transportation Safety Board said the small plane wasn't equipped for the emergency situation, and that it lacked a functioning emergency locator transmitter.

“The route choice proved to be too much of a climb for the aircraft as it was loaded, and not being prepared for an emergency … caused the accident and delay,” Bill Yearwood, manager of aviation accident investigations, told CTV News in a statement.

The pilot’s apparent decision to keep flying the plane straight ahead and not try to turn at low altitude and speed reduced the collision angle at impact, Yearwood added.

The Joint Rescue Coordination Centre said the crew failed to file a flight plan, and that the lack of an emergency beacon onboard complicated the search effort.

“Had they had one of those, we would have been there immediately,” Capt. Gregory Clarke said.

The TSB is continuing to investigate the accident.