The younger sister of pilot Al McBain confirmed he was killed in a charter float plane crash on northern Vancouver Island along with three others last Friday.
Nathalie Chambers says her brother was a lifelong adventurer who loved nature, could fix any engine and had flying in his blood.
“I’m so devastated and shocked that this would’ve happened because he was a perfectionist beyond measure,” said Chambers, who is a city councillor in Saanich on the island’s south end.
Five people were rescued from the wreckage on Addenbroke Island, about 85 kilometres north of Port Hardy, after the of the Seair Seaplanes Cessna 208 went down. Three people were sent to a local hospital and two airlifted to Vancouver.
Authorities have yet to release the names of anyone who was on board.
Chambers says it was strangely fitting that their late father Maj. John Harold McBain had been a pilot for the Comox 442 Rescue Squadron — the same group that was dispatched after the crash to investigate and rescue the survivors.
She had been camping over the weekend at the Walbran Valley on western Vancouver Island when the crash occurred.
“We experienced some really bad weather, and I think that that weather was felt all over the Coast,” she said.
She was out of internet range while away and only found out about her brother when she returned from camping on Sunday.
Seair has only commented on its Facebook, says staff are devastated at the news.
RELATED STORY: 442 Squadron rescues survivors of plane crash near Port Hardy
What caused the plane to crash is still under investigation by the Transportation Safety Board.
– with files from The Canadian Press
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