Officials say drinking water does not appear to have been contaminated by fuel after a float plane crash-landed and flipped upside down in Comox Lake.
The plane, a small home-built aircraft, was seen circling above the lake by witnesses Wednesday afternoon just before it happened.
First responders say that when it landed, it came down so hard one of its pontoons split, causing the plane to skip a few times on the water and then slowly roll over.
“The plane floats on the pontoons and when it filled up with water, it got heavy on one side and then it just toppled the plane,” said Craig Windley of Cumberland Fire Rescue.
The aircraft is registered under the name Keith Meinhardt, who is also the treasurer of the Courtenay Airpark.
He was the only one aboard the plane and managed to escaped unharmed before witnesses helped him to safety.
“To have him out of the water before we got there, that saved a huge rescue for everybody,” said Windley, adding that the man was lucky to be alive.
The plane eventually submerged into the water, causing some concern as to whether fuel would seep into the lake.
On Thursday, staff with the Comox Valley Regional District placed a boom around the sunken aircraft as a precaution.
Because roughly 47,000 people rely on the Comox Lake watershed for their main drinking water, staff also laid a second boom at the mouth of the lake that feeds into the Puntledge River.
The CVRD confirmed that so far, nothing has leaked from the wreck.
“There is no evidence based on close visual inspections by the fire department, RCMP and CVRD water operators of leaking fuel or oil from the plane and we are confident there are no issues with drinking water,” said the CVRD’s engineering manager Marc Rutten.
The Transportation Safety Board is now gathering information to determine what caused the plane to make such a hard landing.
With a report from CTV Vancouver Island's Jessica Lepp
