Please sign our "Five Deaths Demand Justice Petition"at
http://www.petitiononline.com:80/cgaqw/petition.html.
A link has also
been added to our website http://www.questforjustice.ca.
If you have
ideas for further distribution, please let me know. This is the text
to the Petition.
To: Prime Minister of Canada
To The Honourable Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada;
On the 28th of February 2005, five souls were lost after the air taxi
they travelled in "disappeared" minutes after departure from Campbell
River, British Columbia. Two days later, the body of one of the
passengers was found not ten kilometers away. The autopsy showed he
had no serious injuries, but had suffered extensively from
hypothermia
before slowly drowning. Countless family members, friends and fellow
Canadians have been permanently scarred by these fatalities. Three
women and ten children are now sup****ted by WorkSafe BC pensions,
instead of by their husbands and fathers.
Despite the far-reaching implications, government officials have
virtually ignored the seriousness of this fatal accident. The
families
and volunteers from their communities spent huge amounts of money and
their own valuable time to search for and recover the aircraft using
information that was immediately available to the Joint Rescue Co-
ordination Centre and the RCMP. The Trans****tation Safety Board (TSB)
ignored witness re****ts and physical evidence of engine failure and
poor management, instead taking the easy road and blaming the pilot.
The TSB's failure to accurately re****t on the accident, resulted in
Trans****t Canada Civil Aviation (TCCA) Occupational Health & Safety
(OH&S) department closing its file, thus failing to investigate
infringements of the Canada Labour Code. The families and their
communities continue with efforts to raise the aircraft engine from
the ocean floor to provide conclusive evidence. Although the TSB
continue to "investigate", they contend that an engine failure
"should
not cause the accident" and they can learn nothing by retrieving the
engine. Not-withstanding the age of the engine type and its known
issues, the families' and many in the aviation community contend that
R-985 is very much in use and can still be learned from, most
specifically because of its age. Yet the accident remains a "Class 5
Occurrence" with no investigation for cause. More than two years have
passed since these five men lost their lives, yet the BC Coroner
Service, the RCMP and WorkSafe BC are unable to further their
investigations. The engine remains in a do***ented location on the
ocean floor, with the four missing souls likely nearby.
Significant evidence has been provided justifying a public inquiry by
the TSB to: reduce the risk involved in the air taxi, and more
specifically floatplane, trans****tation service sector; uncover
otherwise hidden facts; initiate remedial action; reflect the actual
extent of lost lives; appease public interest and concern; and to
address the deficiencies of Trans****t Canada Civil Aviation.
Evidence indicates that both public and private sectors have much to
learn from a speedy resolution to this investigation.
We the undersigned, demand that an official government body
immediately begin a public inquiry into the cir***stances surrounding
the fatal accident of the aircraft mark C-GAQW and the subsequent
investigation into five unnecessary deaths.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
Stay safe.
A DHC2 Widow
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