Plane from my school crashed

Pilot clings to life after plane crash

Aviation | Investigators probe why plane skidded off Fredericton runway

By ADAM BOWIE
bowie.adam@dailygleaner.com

Published Monday November 12th, 2007

Appeared on page A1

A student pilot is in critical condition after his plane skidded off a runway at Fredericton's airport and slammed into an embankment Saturday.

The young man flying the small plane came to Canada from China. He was learning to fly aircraft at the Moncton Flight College site at the Fredericton International Airport.

He sustained facial lacerations and broken bones in his forehead during the crash, which happened around 11:30 a.m. He's being treated at the Saint John Regional Hospital.

Mike Doiron, the college's principal and CEO, said the pilot was doing one of his first solo flight exercises. He said the pilot had problems during landing procedures that caused his plane to leave the runway and crash nose-first into a ditch.

Doiron said he's hopeful the student will come through the incident in good health.

"He's being heavily monitored by specialists in Saint John," he said. "He's sedated now, and we'll see what happens in the next day or two. His family has been notified and they're deciding whether to make the trip now, or wait to see what happens."

Cpl. Claude Tremblay of District 2 RCMP said the emergency response team had some problems communicating with the student at the crash site.

"We had a little bit of a problem with language -- at least at the beginning until we got a translator there," he said. "But everything is fine."

Two employees connected to the airport speculated language barriers between the pilot and the control tower may have played some role in the crash.

Doiron said he didn't believe a language barrier played any role in the incident.

"No, it doesn't appear to be (an issue)," he said. "The reason they wanted the translator was to make sure absolutely nothing was missed."

Andrew Leeming, director of operations at the Fredericton International Airport, said the crash shut down one of the airport's two runways until the plane was removed in the early evening.

Extra staff members were called in to the airport Saturday afternoon to help ensure operations continued as planned and flights arrived and departed on schedule.

Leeming said the airport will conduct an investigation to assess their emergency response services.

"We always go over our protocols after any kind of incident happens at the airport," he said.

"We'll review our emergency procedures and their effectiveness after the situation is resolved."

A airport crash usually requires an independent investigation by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. But since the crash involved a single, small-engine plane, Leeming said the board allowed the flight college to conduct its own internal investigation.

Doiron said the investigation will examine the mechanical functions of the plane as well as how prepared the student was before the crash.

"We're going to be looking at weather conditions, the aircraft's engine, the student's training profile."

In June, one of the college's planes was forced to make a belly landing at the Greater Moncton International Airport after a student and instructor had problems with the plane's landing gear.

A plane from our school crashed on saturday.................

i feel so bad. i can tell how painful is that when hitting the ground.

i wish the student will recover soon. god bless him!!!!