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‘Legislative

Parliament Bey
Victoria Wot,

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ildings

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_ WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20, 1990 -

Vol. 6, Issue No. 25

TEN

Phone 635-7840
Fax 635-7269.

ee B15

DRINKING AND DRIVING? Have we got the vehicle for you.

Skylink crash
- pilot disorientation |

TERRACE — The tragic final

moments of Skylink flight 070°

were reconstructed in courtroom
3 at the Kalum St. law courts

-here Monday morning. It was

- the opening of the coroner’s in-
quest into the Sept. 26, 1989
_crash at the Terrace-Kitimat air-
. port that killed seven people. ”
Under questioning by Mitch

. Houg, the Prince George lawyer -

acting as counsel for northern
regional coroner John Wolsey,
the head .of the team that in-
vestigated the accident. spent the
morning detailing the Canadian

Aviation Safety Board’s analysis

of what happened before the

- erash. For Roger Ayotte, it was
- only the beginning of a long and

. gruelling day‘on the stand,

No one survived the crash,
and no one will ever know for
certain what caused the airplane
to approach so low that it struck
the tops of trees off to the west

-of runway 15, shearing eight feet
off the end of the right wing and -

sending it into the ground.
But through their examination

of. information from the air-

plane’s flight data recorder,
cockpit voice recorder, com-
puter analysis of known facts,
the testimony of experts and
witnesses, and a reconstruction
of the airplane’s behavior with a
simulator, the CASB team
believes it has come up with a

‘reasonable sense of what hap-

pened. Why it happened, how-
ever, is still a matter of specula-

i
f

-caused by Thornhi

tion and likely to remain so.

As Ayotte answered Houg’s
questions for the five-member
jury, the following story
emerged.
~ Skylink flight 070 left Van-

couver at 6:51 a.m. on Sept. 26,

+1989 carrying five passengers,

flown by captain Craig Ashe,
33, and- co-pilot William

‘Ainsworth, Both crew members

had extensive experience on the
Metroliner HII aircraft and had
flown the Vancouver-Terrace

‘route many times together. The

airplane they were flying on that
day, however, was a different
Metroliner III that was different
in one critical respect than the

cont'd pg A3

»

AZ 4

2 2p p- we 7

ll fire under

investigation

by Tod Strachan

A fire which destroyed the con-
trol centre at the Kentron Paving
plant in Thornhill early Tuesday
morning is currently under investi-
gation by RCMP and the regional
fire marshall from Prince George.

Thormhill fire chief Art Hoving
says they were called to the scene
of the blaze by Terrace RCMP at
about 4:20 a.m. Tuesday but they
were unable to save the “control
tower" which housed Kentron’s
‘Terrace offices and computer con-

trol equipment for the asphalt.

ism to the "scale shack" and a ;

front end loader at the plant are
under investigation. -

The Kentron asphalt plant is the
only source of paving material in
the Terrace area but city director

of operations, John Colongard,
Says a temporary closure at the

plant shouldn’t cause any prob-
lems. He says there are only three
major paving ‘projects about to
begin in Terrace -- Halliwell,

-Lazelle ‘and Keefer -- but a

plant. He says that the cause of the ' shutdown of even several weeks
fire and apparently related vandal- ‘won't hinder their completion.

=

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ulture and biology reviewed - Forestry Insights A7_

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