Paul Bickford
Northern News Services

Fort Smith (May 30/05) - Frank Holman was in a deadly spot: upside down in a crashed aircraft, trying to get out as water rushed to get in.

The 80-year-old survived. So did pilot Charles (Phil) Dorais, then 23. But Holman's son Bruce and fellow-passenger Donna Ault died.

It shouldn't have been that way, says Holman, now calling for steps to make it easier to escape a submerged floatplane.

Holman tells a harrowing story of being trapped in the Cessna 185 on that fateful June 7, 2004, day in the Taltson River 70 km north of Fort Smith.

"I was looking around, saying I've got to find the door and the handle," he said.

He tried to break the passenger-side window, and "hit it with my fist as hard as I could. Nothing happened."

Holman hit the window with his right elbow, getting extra force by pushing his right arm with his left hand. The window didn't break.

Holman saw bubbles go up the side of the window and thought, "this is the first stage of drowning," before the pilot helped him escape.

Holman said he was a "basket case" when he got to the surface and was too exhausted to move after collapsing on a pontoon.

It was too late to help the other passengers, including his son, he says. "If anyone was down there, we knew they were drowned."

Son Bruce was 49, from Calgary and Donna Ault, 51, was from Red Deer.

"Something has got to be done," says Holman, also from Red Deer.

Holman notes floatplane accidents are common across Canada, often involving a plane upside down in water.

"How in the hell are you going to get out of that aircraft?" Holman wonders.

He was reacting to the final report of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada into the deadly crash.

The Big River Air Ltd. plane had flown to an area known as Ferguson's Cabin from Four Mile Lake, just south of Fort Smith.

The board found survivors were unable to locate the interior door handles after the floatplane became inverted and submerged in water.

The board is concerned floatplanes may not be designed to allow an easy way out after a survivable accident.

It also believes standard pre-flight briefings and safety-feature cards don't mentally prepare passengers for disorientation during a crash, particularly underwater.

Last year, the board advised Cessna Aircraft and government safety agencies in Canada and the U.S. of its concerns.

Holman is sure he would not have been able to open the door even if he could have found the handle, noting the door was jammed shut in the crash. Only because the pilot-side window broke during the crash was he able to take that route to escape.

He suggested other emergency escape routes for floatplanes, such as more easily breakable windows.

"Mount a damn carpenter's hammer above the window," he said.

WWII survivor

The survivor took pilot's training during the Second World War and parachuted out of a plane through an escape hatch. "Why couldn't things like that be built into other aircraft?"

There are no requirements for seaplanes to be fitted with design countermeasures such as pop-out windows or doors that can be rapidly jettisoned.

The report did not state a cause of the accident.

Holman is sure everyone on the plane survived the initial crash. "It wasn't like we smacked into anything, except the water."

"For undetermined reasons, the aircraft contacted the water in a nose-low attitude on landing or entered a nose-low attitude shortly after touchdown," the report stated. "As a result, the left float dug in and the aircraft cartwheeled."

The report noted the pilot was relatively inexperienced with seaplane operations and river landings, and had not landed at Ferguson's Cabin before.

"Although he was aware of the implications of landing in the bay, the pilot elected to land closer to the cabin rather than in the main channel of the river," the report stated.

"Because the landing area in the bay was relatively short and was bordered with trees and a rising shoreline, precision flying was required to prevent running into the far shore. The decision to land in the bay increased the risk associated with the landing and left no margin for error."

Holman dismissed any suggestion the pilot's decision to land in the bay may have contributed to the crash.

Pilot not to blame

"Everything seemed normal to me," he says. "I could not blame the pilot."

Instead, he believes the plane may have been hit by a gust of wind, which tipped the wing. Doug Williamson, operations manager with Big River Air, says he was "really disappointed" in the pilot's decision to land in the bay. "I think that was a poor decision."

The pilot left for his home in Ottawa following the accident and did not return to work with Big River Air. He could not be located for comment.

Mike Tomm, the Transportation Safety Board's operations investigator in Western Canada, said the report didn't go beyond the known facts of the accident and doesn't lay blame.

Williamson says Big River Air will learn whatever it can from the report.

As for the suggestion of redesigning the aircraft, Williamson said, "Every accident is going to have a different set of circumstances. I don't know if you can redesign something that can withstand all accidents."