Kevin Wilson & Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 04/02) - The airplane that crashed Monday near Fort Good Hope, killing all four on board, should never have taken off, said the operations manager of a competing airline.

"They shouldn't have been flying," said David James, operations manager for North-Wright Airways, based out of Norman Wells.

The statement came as the RCMP, the territory's chief coroner and two investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada prepared to recover the bodies and inspect the site of the crashed Cessna 172 yesterday.

Search parties found the bodies of the pilot and three passengers with the wreckage Wednesday afternoon about 50 kilometres south of Fort Good Hope.

Dead are Kole Crook, 27, a well-known Hay River fiddler; Ashley Andrew, 18, and her sister Lindsey, 11, nieces of Tulita Chief Frank Andrew; and pilot Dana Wentzel, 23, of Lower Sackville, N.S.

The Ursus Aviation airplane crashed on Dec. 31 after its 1:14 p.m. departure from Fort Good Hope. It was flying to Norman Wells en route to Tulita.

The Canadian Forces Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Trenton, Ont., was called at about 3 p.m. after the plane failed to check in, said air rescue co-ordinator Capt. Pierre Bolduc.

Icy conditions

Reasons for the crash are not yet known, but James believes weather could have been a factor.

James said North-Wright grounded all its small aircraft because of icy conditions on the day of the crash.

"There was freezing rain and ice reported from other aircraft," said James. "Ursus kept on going."

James said small aircraft like the crashed Cessna do not have heaters to keep the windshields defrosted.

John Louison, ground search and rescue co-ordinator in Fort Good Hope, confirmed that conditions at the time were not the best. He said he helped the pilot scrape ice off the Ursus Cessna before it took off.

"The plane was really icy," said Louison. "He should have stayed on the ground, but I didn't think it was my place (to tell the pilot)."

Blair Jensen, owner of Tulita-based Ursus Aviation, said he checked the pilot's weather readout for the day and it seemed fine, although "elders in Fort Good Hope said the weather changed radically."

Jensen added that the pilot made the final decision to fly. He was also skeptical of James' contention that all his planes were grounded that day.

After the plane disappeared, day search crews scoured the countryside for almost 40 hours.

A faint emergency locator transmitter signal was detected south of Fort Good Hope in a heavily wooded area called Sans Sault.

RCC Trenton dispatched a Hercules aircraft Monday, and requested local assistance from RCMP in Fort Good Hope and Norman Wells.

A Griffin helicopter arrived Wednesday from CFB Cold Lake in Alberta, said Bolduc.

RCMP detachment commander Mark Crowther said rescue aircraft went back out at "first light" Wednesday morning.

Both Crowther and Bolduc said a lack of daylight and heavy brush will make examining the wreckage and extracting the bodies difficult.

The wreckage is also resting at about a 70-degree angle on an embankment.

Ursus is paying the airfare for the crash victims' family members to travel to Tulita, said Jensen.

Transportation Safety Board spokesperson Jim Harris said from Ottawa the federal agency will look into all facets of the crash.