Sea Plane/Float Planes

Sea Plane/Float Planes.
by Dick Hunt, June 2nd, 2010.
In 1929 my family spent the winter in Victoria, staying with my Father’s younger Quadralpegic brother Alfred and his adopted son Wilfred. Wilfred heard about a Seaplane service from Victoria to Seattle which had just been inaugureated He was intrigued and so reserved a return flight for himself. In due course he flew off, to return the next day. All went well. My younger brother Bill was five years of age and when he learned that Wilfred had flown to Seattle, he said, “Daddy, I want to see attle too”. However, the very next flight from Victoria disappeared into the sea and the only clues to it’s fate were some seat cushions and bits of luggage.

In 1963 I was asked to fly from Campbell River to Williams Lake to conduct a funeral for a teen ager who tragically took his own life. He was an only child. Ruth went with me and we flew a direct route from Campbell River to Williams Lake, flying directly over the peak of Mount Waddington. The snow was very deep over much of our route and I remember thinking that if we crashed in that terrian we would be very hard to locate, whether dead or alive. We landed on Williams Lake and the pilot waited for us, flying us home in late afternoon. The plane was a Cessna 180 and the pilot was sixty five years of age. Our flight was uneventful. His very next flight was in a larger Cessna and he had five passengers, one known to me. Their route was north along the coast. The flight dissapeared and nothing was ever heard of it again. It was suggested that the pilot had a heart attack and plunged into the sea.

The numerous tragic float plane accidents in recent years brought these memories back to mind and I find myself grateful for what could have been us and not them in their icy graves and shortened lives. Thank you Lord. Why them and not us?