A floatplane pilot and passenger escaped with minor injuries after the plane ended up submerged upside down during a water landing Thursday morning at Lasqueti Island.
The Joint Rescue Coordination Centre said it received a report around 9:20 a.m. of an overturned plane in the False Bay area with two people on board. A helicopter and boats were sent to respond, a spokesperson for the centre said.
Two nearby civilian vessels helped with the rescue, and the two people on the plane were brought to shore aboard a Canadian Coast Guard lifeboat.
B.C. Emergency Health Services responded to the incident with an air ambulance, but the two suffered only minor physical injuries and did not require medical care from paramedics, said Bowen Osoko, manager of media and issue communications for BCEHS.
Photos online showed a plane nearly submerged in the water, its wheels sticking out of the floats visible above the surface.
Telus, which had a passenger on the plane, is investigating the incident, said Richard Gilhooley, a company spokesperson for Western Canada.
The bay was closed by the coast guard to allow for spill response, and ferries to and from the island were cancelled temporarily.
