'A stupid mistake': Pilot safe after hard landing in Campbell River
Despite 57 years of flying experience under his belt, pilot Joel Eilertsen realized you can't be too complacent. His lesson came after the plane he was piloting made a hard landing on the ocean near Campbell River on Thursday morning.
"It was a little bit of a stupid mistake on my part and that's all there is to it,” Eilertsen says. “As pilots, we have to admit when we make mistakes. We can't be trying to blame anybody else for something."
The 74-year-old runs a charter business out of Coal Harbour on the north end of Vancouver Island and was bringing his plane to Campbell River for maintenance when the mishap occurred.
He was landing in the water off of Painter's Lodge, something he says he has done thousands of times before.
“Everybody is saying, ‘Boy, you were lucky,’ but luck is made,” he says.
Eilertsen wasn't injured in the incident and says he was wearing a shoulder belt and flotation device when his plane hit the water. He says two boats came to his assistance right away.
"I was just coming in and I wasn't paying attention. The aircraft was level and the airspeed had dropped off and I was about 20 feet off the water,” he says.
The nose hit and busted the spreader bar and the aircraft was then leaning to one side.
Asked what his initial thoughts were when the plane was going down, Eilertsen says he thought "Oh boy, this is going to hurt,” he says.
Mike Miller witnessed the mishap from his home near the lodge.
"I was just typing on my computer and looking out the window and boom,” Miller says. “The nose went in, I ran in and got my wife and called 911.”
He says it took a while before the pilot appeared out of the aircraft.
He says the first to arrive on the scene was a water taxi, perhaps two to three minutes after the plane came down, and then the coast guard.
Millers says the sun shining in the eyes of the pilot may have been a factor in the crash.
The 1967 De Havilland Turbo Beaver was towed by a coast guard vessel to the Sealand Aviation facility in Campbell River and is already undergoing repairs.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Doctors say capital gains tax changes will jeopardize their retirement. Is that true?
The Canadian Medical Association asserts the Liberals' proposed changes to capital gains taxation will put doctors' retirement savings in jeopardy, but some financial experts insist incorporated professionals are not as doomed as they say they are.
Something in the water? Canadian family latest to spot elusive 'Loch Ness Monster'
For centuries, people have wondered what, if anything, might be lurking beneath the surface of Loch Ness in Scotland. When Canadian couple Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman visited the Scottish highlands earlier this month with their two children, they didn’t expect to become part of the mystery.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
It's no secret that spring can be a tumultuous time for Canadian weather, and as an unseasonably mild El Nino winter gives way to summer, there's bound to be a few swings in temperature that seem out of the ordinary. From Ontario to the Atlantic, though, this week is about to feel a little erratic.
What a urologist wants you to know about male infertility
When opposite sex couples are trying and failing to get pregnant, the attention often focuses on the woman. That’s not always the case.
He replaced Mickey Mantle. Now baseball's oldest living major leaguer is turning 100
The oldest living former major leaguer, Art Schallock turns 100 on Thursday and is being celebrated in the Bay Area and beyond as the milestone approaches.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.