Jeremy Francis was checking on his grandmother’s backyard in Saanich on Sunday, but had an unexpected find.
“I was checking her paths, and I went all the way out in the field and stumbled across a six-foot propeller,” said Francis.
He was surprised and confused how it ended up on the property just south of Mount Doug, but then it clicked.
“More of utter shock, didn’t hear anything lately of any place crashes. I’ve talked to my parents and they’ve said a plane had recently crashed,” he said.
Back on Feb. 18 a small Cessna from the Victoria Flying Club made an emergency crash landing in in a rural field in Blenkinsop Valley.
READ MORE: Plane crashes after attempting landing in Saanich field
Everyone on-board was able to escape, and two were taken to hospital with minor injuries.
“They had an oil leak, apparently that may have obscured their vision, which caused them to need to land… aside from landing on its wheels this is the next best case scenario,” said Capt. Charlie Rivers from Saanich fire.
Investigators started trying to piece together exactly what caused the crash, but the one piece that likely held many of the clues, was the missing propeller.
So the flying club started combing the area.
“The aerodynamics of it are unpredictable, I expect it’s very close to where we are standing,” said Greg Matte, Victoria Flying Club general manager.
“That’s one of the clues we need to find that propeller and the little engine mount that goes with it, cause that serial number will help us with the investigation.”
The property where it was found is around 1.5 kilometres away from the crash site. Francis let officials know the search is over, but the find is still a scary one.
“When you see something that large dug in as deep as it was, that anyone could have been out in the yard, they could’ve definitely got struck by it, or defiantly come through someone’s house, it looks quite heavy when I tried to pick it up,” Francis added.
The crash is still under investigation, but the flying club has picked up the propeller. It brings them one step closer to solving the unexpected crash.
Julian Kolsut
