Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, June 02, 2008

LLI GOLINE/NORMAN WELLS - A well-known Tulita man was killed in a May 24 helicopter crash north of Norman Wells.

The RCMP have identified the victim as Alvin Yallee, 51.

Yallee was a former vice-president of the Dene Nation, and was the first person in the NWT to bring forward charges of sexual abuse in the residential school system.

Alvin Yallee

Three people were on board the Sahtu Helicopters Hughes 500D aircraft when it crashed at approximately 8:20 a.m. on May 24 about 70 km north of Norman Wells.

The pilot and a passenger survived the crash.

The passenger was treated in hospital and released. The pilot was flown to Edmonton with undisclosed injuries.

Insp. Kevin Violot, the north district commander with the RCMP's G Division, said the helicopter was leaving Kelly Lake and heading to a nearby drilling platform when it crashed.

"When the helicopter crashed, shortly thereafter it caught on fire from the impact," Violot said.

The surviving passenger - Don Morrison of New Brunswick - pulled the unidentified female pilot out of the downed helicopter and away from the burning wreckage.

"By the time he got back, he couldn't get to the other passenger," Violot said, explaining the fire was too intense.

Morrison is being praised for his heroic actions in rescuing the pilot.

"We're very proud of him," said John Versfelt, the president and CEO of Morrison's employer, Cabo Drilling Corp. of Vancouver.

However, Versfelt said the focus should be on the Yallee family at their time of grief.

Morrison was not available for comment.

"Don needs to rest and take care of himself for a while," Versfelt said.

Yallee, an independent contractor, managed the drilling camp for Cabo Drilling, which was doing diamond exploration for Patrician Diamonds Inc.

The death of Yallee - a married father of two sons - has shaken Tulita, said his cousin Norman Yakeleya, the MLA for Sahtu.

"Alvin was a go-getter," said Yakeleya.

"He certainly saw potential in Tulita and the Sahtu region."

Yallee played a key role in reaching the Sahtu land claims agreement and later was president of the Tulita Land and Financial Corporation.

Yallee was residing in Fort Nelson, B.C., where his wife is attending school.

Yakeleya said it was a very difficult decision for Yallee to talk publicly about sexual abuse at Grollier Hall residential school in Inuvik after 27 years.

However, Yallee did so after a cousin - another victim of sexual abuse at Grollier Hall - committed suicide.

"He couldn't live with it anymore," Yakeleya said of Yallee. "He wanted to get the truth out."

A spokesperson for the helicopter company said its employees are "distraught" by the accident.

"Everybody is shaken by this incident," said John Buckland, manager of operations with Great Slave Helicopters in Yellowknife.

"We're not accustomed to an accident of this magnitude."

Buckland said it was the company's first fatal accident since it incorporated in 1984, adding it works hard on training and safety.

The company has offered grief counselling to its employees.

Great Slave Helicopters owns Sahtu Helicopters - whose president is Yallee's brother Rocky Norwegian - in partnership with the Tulita Land and Financial Corporation.

Buckland described the Hughes 500D helicopter as "a very solid aircraft."

Chris Krepski, a spokesperson for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB), said it is too early to speculate on the accident's possible causes.

When asked how long an investigation may take, he said, "Each case is different. We take the time to do a thorough investigation."

At the conclusion of the investigation, a public report will be released.

The TSB has removed the wreckage of the helicopter from the crash site as part of its investigation.

Yallee's 18-year-old son Lorin, who is serving jail time in an Alberta facility, was unable to attend his father's funeral on Saturday.

Alberta officials wanted the family to pay the cost of an escort, which would have been very expensive.

Rocky Norwegian said Lorin, since he couldn't attend the funeral, wrote a letter to his father which Norwegian was to read at the service.

"That's going to be hard on me," Norwegian said on Friday. "That's pretty sad."

The family was also hoping to video the funeral so Lorin can watch it later, said Norwegian, president of the Fort Norman Metis Land Corporation.

Norwegian said the death of his brother has been hard for the family.

"We're all shocked," he said. "It's a great loss to us."