Jaime Pawliuk was driving to work Thursday on Foothills Boulevard in Prince George, when he saw an aircraft flying low, and travelling at high speed in his direction.
“At first I didn’t even think it was real. I think the brain took almost just a few extra moments to process. This is actually happening. If you don’t do something right now, you’re going to get squished,” said Pawliuk.
The plane collided with four vehicles – resulting in the death of one person.
Thankfully for Pawliuk, his SUV absorbed the brunt of the impact, allowing him to escape with his life.
“I tried to veer myself right as much as possible but that plane was coming in so hot that the wing smacked against the top of my car, sheared the entire metal off, shattered me with glass. I still have glass in my hands, in my arms, in my hair. Showers later, it just won’t come out.”
The plane, a twin-engine Beech King Air 200, had departed from Sturdee Airstrip in northern B.C. around 1:25 Thursday afternoon, with two pilots and 6 passengers onboard. On route to Prince George International Airport.
While early in the investigation, the Transportation Safety Board believes the aircraft lost power to one engine, prior to the emergency landing.
John Gradek, an aviation expert at McGill University, says now that investigators have identified what brought the plane down, they will now examine flight data to determine why the engine failed.
“The question that’s going to take a lot longer is why did this happen? And that usually takes, in these cases, somewhere between 12 to 18 months,” said Gradek.
“We’ll have a lot of information in that flight data recorder that will talk about the state of the engines and what happened to those engines in the interim between the time the engines got turned on until the engines quit on the crash.”
As the investigation continues, the RCMP urged local residents to stay clear of the area surrounding the crash.
“It’s natural to be curious, definitely, especially when it’s something so out of ordinary, like a plane making an emergency landing on a roadway. But we do have to, you kind of curb those curious instincts and just wait for information to come from official sources,” said Cpl. Jennifer Cooper, media relations officer of the Prince George RCMP.
For Pawliuk, he is grateful to be alive. But he can’t help but feel for the family of the other motorist, who wasn’t as fortunate.
“My heart goes out to the family who lost someone. That will stay with me for a very long time.”
