Yellowknife Inn


NNSL Photo/Graphic

business pages

Subscriber pages
buttonspacer News Desk
buttonspacer Columnists
buttonspacer Editorial
buttonspacer Readers comment
buttonspacer Tenders

Demo pages
Here's a sample of what only subscribers see

Subscribe now
Subscribe to both hardcopy or internet editions of NNSL publications
.
SSIMicro
Home page text size buttonsbigger textsmall textText size Email this articleE-mail this page

American pilot killed as plane crashes
Six-day search needed to find downed aircraft

Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Saturday, July 31, 2010

LLI GOLINE/NORMAN WELLS - After an extensive six-day search, a retired American businessman has been found dead in the wreckage of a plane that went missing south of Norman Wells on July 24.

NNSL photo/graphic

Terry Johnson, a retired businessman from Colorado, died in a plane crash south of Norman Wells on July 24. - photo courtesy of the Johnson family

The victim has been identified as Terry Johnson, 75, of Colorado.

Johnson was piloting the aircraft and was the lone occupant.

The plane – a Beechcraft Bonanza – was found at about 10 a.m. on July 29 by search and rescue crews about 130 km southeast of Norman Wells.

The aircraft went missing after it departed Norman Wells on a flight to Peace River, Alta.

Johnson was travelling home after a 12-day canoeing trip on the Keele River.

Capt. Jeff Noel, a spokesperson for the Canadian Armed Forces, said the downed aircraft was located between Norman Wells and Wrigley.

Noel said a Coast Guard helicopter from Hay River spotted what appeared to be a recent crash impact area.

"They reported it to the deployed search and rescue headquarters that we had established here at Norman Wells," he said.

The helicopter then returned to Norman Wells and picked up two Canadian Forces search and rescue technicians, who were flown to the crash scene and confirmed the Coast Guard's report.

"Sadly the pilot, Mr. Johnson from Colorado, was found deceased," Noel said.

Air Force crews from across Canada, the Canadian Coast Guard, and Civil Air Search and Rescue Association (CASARA) members participated in the search, which began on July 24.

"Approximately 100 military and civilian personnel were involved with us on the operation," Noel said. "We had 12 aircraft involved in the search."

The Canadian Forces aircrafts came from Yellowknife, Manitoba, Alberta and B.C. There were also the Coast Guard helicopter from Hay River and five civilian aircraft and their personnel from the NWT, Alberta and Manitoba.

"According to the search master, we searched approximately 40,000 square miles," Noel said.

The case has been turned over to the RCMP and local authorities in the NWT, and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada will be investigating to determine the cause of the crash.

Noel said, as far as he knows, the aircraft was equipped with an emergency locator. As for why it apparently did not function, he said that will be up to the Transportation Safety Board to determine.

Terry Johnson was a well-known businessman in Colorado, where he founded a data-storage company in the basement of his home in the early 1980s.

His son, Jim Johnson of Colorado, said his father had been travelling to the NWT for 15 or 20 years.

"I'm sure he's been there more than 15 times," Johnson said, saying his father visited to fish and go on canoeing trips. "He loved the beauty."

Jim Johnson talked of a video his father took of hundreds of caribou walking through a campsite.

"And he's just sitting there with his video camera watching all this," Jim said. "He just so loved that area. It was really the only place in the world he went back to repeatedly and repeatedly and repeatedly…. That was an area he just couldn't get enough off."

Jim Johnson had nothing but praise for the search and rescue effort, describing everyone involved as calm, professional and competent.

"Wouldn't the world be blessed if everybody had the professionalism, and the demeanour and the drive of the Canadians in this situation," he said.

Johnson said his father had been flying since 1982.

"We've always known this might be a possibility," he said of the crash. "It was always in the back of our minds."

We welcome your opinions on this story. Click to e-mail a letter to the editor.