The pilot who died when his plane went down near Crawford Bay experienced bad weather this summer before the crash.
The BC Coroner’s office released its report the case of Anthony (Tony) Quibell this week.
The 53-year-old local man died when his Cessna Skymaster 337 airplane crashed near Crawford Bay. Quibell was the lone occupant in the plane, full of fuel, which took off from the Nelson Airport at 1:30 p.m. on June 12 intending to fly to La Ronge, Saskatchewan.
His six-hour flight was cut tragically short when his plane crashed in “high-treed terrain” and burst into flames upon impact. Quibell died at the scene.
Coroner Jed Maddock concluded that Quibell died of “blunt force trauma and thermal exposure as the result of an aircraft crash and subsequent post-crash fire.”
The cause of the crash was due to a frontal system that had moved into the Crawford Bay valley at the time of the accident creating rain and low visibility.
“The crash site’s position was within a few hundred metres of Rose Pass and well below the surrounding mountain tops, and is consistent with deteriorating weather limiting the pilot’s ability to climb higher while maintaining visual reference to the terrain,” wrote Maddock in his report.
Calling Quibell a “very experienced” pilot the coroner said he had over 4,000 hours flying time of which about 450 hours were in this type of aircraft. The plane was also in “good mechanical condition” at the time of the flight.