Updated 1:03 pm, Monday, January 29th:
Northern Escape Heli-Skiing and Skyline Helicopters have identified two of their staff members who passed away in the tragic helicopter crash north of Terrace a week ago.
Pilot Mark McGowan and guide Lewis Ainsworth were two of four people who passed away in the accident.
“We are devastated by the loss,” said Gareth Shanks, General Manager of Skyline Helicopters.
“Mark was a phenomenal pilot and a much-loved part of the Skyline Helicopters team. His skills, friendship and good cheer will be greatly missed by our community.”
“Lewis was in his second year as a guide with us here at Northern Escape and was clearly a rising star in the industry. He was friendly, helpful, passionate and amazingly talented,” said President and General Manager of Northern Escape Heli-Skiing John Forrest.
“Our dedicated staff at Northern Escape and the pilots at Skyline Helicopters, who tirelessly work with us each season, are integral members of the close-knit Northern Escape and British Columbian heli-ski community. Expressing the profound grief we are experiencing is impossible. We hope you will respect the privacy of those impacted at this extremely difficult time.”
Original Story:
A fourth person has died following last week’s fatal helicopter crash north west of Terrace.
According to the BC RCMP, the remains of those who passed away have now been recovered.
On Monday, January 22nd, three helicopters were operating on a heliskiing trip in the mountains when communication was lost with one of the aircraft.
Seven people were on board the helicopter that went down and three passed away.
The other two helicopters shuttled the remaining four passengers from the site to where they were met by BC Emergency Health Services, Terrace Fire Rescue and taken to hospital.
“Poor weather and visibility conditions severely impacted efforts to safely return to the crash site over several days,” said Staff Sergeant Kris Clark of the BC RCMP.
“Thanks to the hard work and determination of the Terrace Search and Rescue, the bodies of those who tragically died have now been recovered.”
The three remaining passengers remain in stable condition.
The Terrace RCMP continues to support the ongoing investigations of the BC Coroners Service, Transportation Safety Board (TSB) and WorkSafe BC.
John Forrest, President, Northern Escape Heli-Skiing, issued the following statement regarding the Helicopter Accident Recovery Mission:
Thank you to the RCMP and the Terrace Search and Rescue team who, earlier today, led the successful recovery mission to bring back the bodies of the three people who tragically lost their lives in the helicopter accident on January 22.
The guests who ski with us and the team members who work with us are part of our extended family. The days following the helicopter accident have been filled with grief, and my heart continues to go out to all those impacted and their loved ones.
The team at Northern Escape, together with our mutual aid neighbour White Wilderness Helisking, put all of their collective decades and decades of training into action to safely bring the four injured patients down the mountain to receive further medical care. That rescue mission was assisted through the off-mountain support of the BC Ambulance Service, the team at Mills Memorial Hospital, the RCMP and the volunteer Terrace Search and Rescue team.
Once our teams rescued the four injured people off the mountain, the helicopter accident site was closed, so we relied on the RCMP, Terrace Search and Rescue and others to take on the important responsibility of recovering those lost. We are pleased that today, thanks to the dedication of those groups, the recovery mission of the three individuals has also been completed.
I know how important it has been for the families to have their loved ones recovered from the mountain. We all wanted this to be done safely and quickly.