La Ronge Plane Crash Takes The Life Of A Local Man
Monday, May 15, 2006 at 14:57
A 54 year old man from La Ronge is dead and two others are lucky to be alive after a fire fighting air tanker crashed yesterday approximately 1.5 kilometers northwest of the Provincial Forest Fire Fighting Center in La Ronge.
Saskatchewan Environment Minister John Nilson, who is on site at the La Ronge Airport today, says the Convair 580-A crashed during training exercises yesterday at approximately 12:30 pm.
Nilson says the plane was one of four the government recently purchased from a BC company called Conair Aviation. He says they are a fleet of older planes, but they all have been totally refurbished. The one that crashed was equipped to drop fire retardant rather than water.
Nilson says the plane has a good safety record and the province purchased it on the recommendations of Alberta and BC’s governments’ approval of the plane, which they are currently using to fight forest fires.
Nilson says this incident is believed to be the first fatality of a northern air operations pilot in at least 30 years. He says he wishes the best and offers his condolences to the family and friends of the victims involved and wanted to thank everyone who took part in the rescue efforts.
Nilson says rescue crews were on the site of the crash within 10 minutes and the two remaining survivors are recovering from non-life-threatening injuries in hospital in Saskatoon.
No names have been released as of yet.