Bob's Photo of the Day

By WetCoastBob

Home Base

Yes yet another photo of a de Havilland Beaver. There over 500 of these planes servicing the west coast of British Columbia. They are the only way to get to many remote communities, unless you want a long arduous boat trip. They are definitely interwoven in the fabric of west coast life.

In November 2009 six people died, including a mother and her six-month-old baby, when a de Havilland Beaver crashed and sank in Lyall Harbour, off Saturna Island. (Not the airline of the here pictured Beaver)

The pilot and a passenger survived after the doors closest to them popped open, but the remaining passengers couldn't escape from exits jammed shut when the plane's fuselage twisted on impact.

The Transportation Safety Board released its final report today on the deadly crash that renewed the focus on float plane safety around British Columbia's mountainous coastal terrain.

One of the TSB recommendations is to install new door handles to replace the original handle which is a recessed horizontal bar, about the width of a coffee mug. To open the door, simply insert hand and turn the bar, as you would a knob.

The problem is that in an emergency situation, when the goal is to escape the six-seat aircraft as quickly as possible, most passengers would be reaching for something more familiar ? such as a car door handle.

The new door handles look just like car door handles. They work just like car door handles. And four of them, fully installed, will cost about $10,000 CDN.

The new door handles follow closely on a decision to adopt special pop-out windows which you can see in this picture. Note the thick black edge of the trapezoidal window. This is a "push-out" window.

The airlines using the Beaver seem to have adopted the recommendations of the Transportation Safety Board before they are mandated by Transport Canada.

Once again the populous lead the "Leaders".

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