7 dead, 1 survivor in plane crash off B.C. coast

Seven of eight people aboard a small plane died Sunday when the aircraft crashed on South Thormanby Island off British Columbia's Sunshine Coast, a spokesperson for the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Victoria said.

Lt. Marguerite Dodds-Lapinski confirmed that eight people were aboard a Grumman Goose amphibious airplane when it went down on the island's south end about 90 kilometres northwest of Vancouver.

One passenger survived the crash and was picked up by the Coast Guard.

"His face was burned, his chest was burned, his hands were burned and he had some gashes on his body," said Drew McKee, a spokesman for the rescue crew, on Sunday night.

McKee said the man had been dozing before the crash and thought he had been knocked out for a few minutes before waking up and scrambling to safety.

It took the man several hours to make his way down a creek bed to the ocean where the Coast Guard crew spotted him, he said.

The Pacific Coastal Airlines flight was on its way from Vancouver to a Plutonic Power Corp. work camp near Toba Inlet to deliver workers and supplies. The company is building a $660-million hydroelectric project in the area in partnership with GE Energy Financial Services.

Spencer Smith, vice-president of customer service and communications for the airline, said the surviving passenger was taken to hospital for treatment.

"Our focus is obviously on trying to do the best we can for the survivor and the families of the deceased. ...Our focus is taking care of that first and foremost, and obviously, we'll co-operate ... with all the authorities as necessary," Smith said. "We're just trying to deal with the reality of the tragedy and human side of what we need to support here."

The airline's president said Sunday the company would suspend all floatplane operations until further notice.

The names of the survivor and the dead wouldn't be disclosed until their families were notified, the company said.

This was Pacific Coastal Airline's second crash since August, when another Grumman Goose airplane crashed on northern Vancouver Island, killing five people.