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The town of Port McNeill on north Vancouver Island is in mourning after a pilot from the area died in a helicopter crash Tuesday that also killed one passenger and seriously injured another.
Port McNeill Mayor James Furney said Riley Browne and his family are well known in the community, having lived there for decades.
“It’s a tough day,” Furney told CBC News. “Nothing but long faces throughout the town yesterday and today.”
Furney described Browne as an “outstanding young man” who got his start in helicopter work around five years ago. Browne was working for Port McNeill-based West Coast Helicopters (WCH), the company involved in the incident, at the time of the crash.
“We’ll be doing for some healing for a while here,” he said. “This is a tough, tough loss, impacting all age groups and so many North Island families.”
West Coast Helicopters says its Port McNeill-based pilot Riley Browne was one of two people who died in a helicopter crash near north Vancouver Island Tuesday morning. (West Coast Helicopters/Facebook)
Speaking with CBC News on Tuesday, WCH general manager Sean Smyth said Browne was a hard worker who was very well-liked and good at what he did.
Smyth said the helicopter was in the Loughborough Inlet near north Vancouver Island for forestry operations when the crash happened around 6:30 a.m. PT.
Two passengers with a north Vancouver Island forestry company were onboard, one of whom also died. B.C. Emergency Health Services says the other was airlifted to hospital in stable but serious condition.
CBC News is not naming the other deceased victim, based on the family’s request for privacy.
2nd fatal crash for WCH
This is the second fatal crash for WCH in nearly as many years.
An August 2024 crash near Port McNeill killed the pilot, the sole occupant of the aircraft.
In April, the The Transportation Safety Board (TSB) posted its investigation report into the crash of a helicopter operated by West Coast Helicopters Maintenance and Contracting.
The investigation found the pilot had been operating in reduced-visibility conditions in mountainous terrain. Investigators recommended operators and pilots establish and adhere to operational visibility and altitude limits.
CBC News reached out to Smyth for comment on the other crash, but he didn’t respond by deadline.
‘It’s a puzzle’
The TSB told CBC News its investigators were heading to the crash site first thing Wednesday morning.
Former TSB investigator Bill Yearwood told CBC News that putting all the pieces together to figure out what happened can be hard work.
“It’s a puzzle, and you’re trying to find as many pieces as possible,” he said. “And sometimes you don’t find all the pieces.”
Investigators start their work before they even head to the site, Yearwood said, gathering information like weather conditions at the time of the event and the circumstances of the trip.
On site, he said, the investigators document the terrain and the wreckage material and determine if it was displaced during the rescue of any occupants. They also look into any GPS or other tracking data, if available.
The wreckage is then removed and placed in a TSB facility where investigators can do a more thorough examination.
Yearwood said the goal is usually to complete an investigation within a year.
“The more pieces you find, whether it’s witnesses or information from the wreckage, the faster the investigation will go and the more confident the board can determine the cause,” he said.
“They’re there to find the cause and not to find fault.”