By Tina Comeau
THE VANGUARD
NovaNewsNow.com
Residents of Argyle, Yarmouth County, couldn’t believe their eyes Sunday afternoon, after a Cessna aircraft crashed into an apple tree after trying to use the Camp Cove Wharf road as a runway.
According to Sergeant Michel Lacroix of the Yarmouth Rural RCMP Detachment, and based on information from witnesses, the four-seater Cessna 172 appeared to be experiencing mechanical or engine trouble when it attempted an emergency landing mid-afternoon on March 7.
The plane hit a power line and the wing clipped a stop sign at the end of the wharf road where it intersects with the main road through Argyle. The plane crossed the main road and crashed into the tree next to the old Mariners Hall, which at one point used to serve as a community hall.
“It just ran out of pavement,” said Sgt. Lacroix, referring to the attempt to land the plane safely.
Three people were inside the plane when it crashed. Two of them were able to exit the plane on their own, although they were still treated for injuries at the Yarmouth Regional Hospital. The pilot was seriously injured and was transported to the hospital in Yarmouth. He was later airlifted to Halifax, said to be in critical condition.
According to Sergeant Michel Lacroix of the Yarmouth Rural RCMP Detachment, and based on information from witnesses, the small aircraft appeared to be experiencing mechanical or engine trouble when it attempted to land mid-afternoon on March 7.
Many people reported seeing the plane sputtering in the air. Some saw it flying low over the Argyle area and circling around the area of the wharf. The plane had been chartered from the valley and was carrying workers from Environment Canada who were doing a coastal bird survey.
According to witnesses the situation could have been a lot worse as a vehicle was driving on the main road when the aircraft crossed in front of it.
Driving in that vehicle were Tara Challoner, her husband Scott and their three-week old baby Kole. The family was out for a Sunday drive and has just pulled out of driveway and was on their way to their own house, a short distance away.
You’re just dumbfounded, you almost don’t believe what you saw just happened, - Argyle resident Tara Challoner
“All of a sudden this plane comes across the road, it hit the stop sign first, but it impacted the pavement and hit a tree,” said Tara Challoner. They stopped and she grabbed the cellphone from her husband and called 911 as she was running across the road to see if everyone was okay.
“By the time I got to the plane, two of the gentlemen were coming out, one was kind of rolling out. I’m asking them if they’re okay, and they’re like, yeah, we’re okay but the pilot’s not,” she says. “I didn’t realize there was another person in there because the plane looked more to me like two-seater.”
Because the family had just pulled onto the main road, and since they were only travelling a short distance, they had not yet accelerated to the posted speed limit. If they were going faster, or had been just a few seconds further down the road, Challoner says things could have been worse. As it was they did have to apply their brakes for the plane to avoid them, but not with so much force that they left skid marks on the road.
“You’re just dumbfounded, you almost don’t believe what you saw just happened,” she said.
The road through Argyle was closed for several hours. Sgt. Lacroix said because the plane was so close to the road he decided to have a crane come and lift it onto a flat-bed truck so it could be transported to a secure location to be examined on Monday by investigators from the Transportation Safety Board.
(Note: You can view more photos from the plane crash on the Yarmouth Vanguard page of NovaNewsNow. Click onto the Vanguard icon at the top of this page. The photos are filed in the News section of the Yarmouth Vanguard.)
