The pilot of a crashed float plane, was rescued by two boaters just minutes before his plane sank to the bottom of Cowichan Lake on Friday.
Ken and Karen Breuker, who live in Saanich, hadn’t even planned to go out on their boat until they got a spontaneous feeling to go fishing. Shortly after arriving at the lake, the couple saw the plane crash.
“We came across this shortly after we got there,” said Ken Breuker, who is also the owner of Oak Bay Construction.
“We both said at the same time, I think it crashed because you see the white wing come up and then the splash and then we just dropped everything and raced over there,” said Karen Breuker.
The Breuker’s said they found the pilot still aboard his crashed float plane that was sinking fast when they got there at around 1 p.m.
“You just get in this mode and you do whatever you can,” said Karen.
According to the Breuker’s, the pilot didn’t want to leave his plane to get into their boat. So, the couple agreed to tow it into shore at Honeymoon Bay until they realized that towing the plane was putting them in jeopardy too.
“It was a bit scary when the plane actually went underwater the right and started to pull, and the pilot was trying to frantically to get the rope off our boat frantically and it was tied up and that was pretty scary too because we didn’t want us to go down with it too,” said Karen.
“He said ‘I really don’t know what happened’. But I said ‘at least you’re fine and you’ve made it through this one,’ that’s something to be thankful for, for sure,” recalled Ken.
A white buoy on the lake’s surface was all that marked where the plane went down on Saturday.
The plane’s floats were recovered from shore after being sheared off in the impact of the crash.
According to RCMP, the pilot, who was transported to hospital, is cooperating fully with their investigation.
Skye Ryan
