Pilot survives float plane crash in Manning Park, according to Chilliwack-area witness

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E.C. MANNING PROVINCIAL PARK — Popkum resident Lynn Brooks was hiking around Lightning Lake Thursday morning (June 6) in Manning Provincial Park when she couldn’t believe what was unfolding before her eyes.

“I saw a plane starting to land through the trees on the trail I was on. “I thought, ‘Wow, what does he think he’s doing?’ A few moments later, I heard a big crash. Shocking!” Brooks said. “Then, when it crashed, I felt bad for my judgemental thoughts.”

As Brooks later found out by talking to the sole occupant of the plane at the crash site, the pilot was flying a float plane from Sechelt to Penticton but had to make an emergency landing and wound up bouncing twice off Lightning Lake before colliding with a tree and coming to rest on a grassy patch near a gravel path.

“He ran out of water. Two bounces and a crash,” Brooks said. “His engine started sounding funny and he made an emergency landing. I saw only the initial landing attempt and heard the crash.”

Brooks hiked 30 minutes to the plane crash site and spoke to the pilot who did not appear to be significantly injured. She arrived just before Manning Provincial Park staff arrived.

She described the pilot as a man in his fifties who did not appear to be shaken 30 minutes after the crash occurred.

“He did not appear to be in shock. He was phoning people taking care of business,” Brooks told Fraser Valley Today Saturday over Facebook Messenger. “The pilot was there yesterday (Friday) taking it apart to tow out. He’s really fine, but it sounded bad. A tree and a plane took all the beating.”

Brooks was initially worried there might be kayakers or people on Lightning Lake around the time of the crash. Southern B.C. weather had just started warming up a day prior after multiple days of Lower Mainland rain, but camping at the lake had not officially started.

“A miracle that no one was on the lake,” Brooks said. “Lightning Lake Campground opened Friday, June 7 for first-come, first served, so there was a lot of variables making this miracle!”

B.C. Emergency Health Services personnel were dispatched and examined the pilot before releasing him at the scene.