Vancouver Seaplane/Boat Collision 8 June 2024

this is taller than the Cub Wing, yeah, just the tail, huh, that's a bit of a climb. You know you're on a

seaplane

when you have floats. In case of a water landing, you have a float on Saturday, June 8. dhc2 beaver on floats collided with a pleasure craft while taking off from Cole Harbor in Vancouver, Canada, the plane was full of passengers five passengers operated by Harbor Air fortunately there were no fatalities but this

collision

has sparked a lot of debate about the rules navigation between ships and airplanes. Let's take a look at this accident that occurred in Vancouver, Canada, in the very busy Cole Harbor.

Harbor Air SE planes are located here and they come and go along this channel here and right here is the Burnaby schs light so as we watch this video. of the

collision

on Twitter is the Barnaby schs light located here here is our Beaver on floats and here is the

boat

that the plane is going to collide with we are facing north once the collision occurs there is a secondary collision where the

boat

spins and hits the rear of the plane and quickly the occupants of the plane get out looking from this angle we can see the beaver approaching the boat in a typical nose high attitude as the beaver makes its way through the water before getting the FL fls.

Climb into the plane and lower the nose, reducing the pilot's visibility in the beaver. Right here, the beaver crashes into the boat. It seems that they remove the bimin. I suspect that both occupants of the boat could have been thrown out of the boat. They both float on the beaver. They basically detach themselves from the plane, the beaver falls back into the water and then begins to slowly sink. Fortunately, the beaver stays afloat long enough for the occupants to get out. This port is busy enough to have a tower controller and here at takeoff. clearance before collision control tower can be heard warning pilot to be careful of ship heading west next 529 ready for northwest if you have enough time 65209 action for westbound B on Northern Alpha take off to the northwest at your discretion.

I didn't hear the pilot acknowledge about the boat heading west, but apparently that was the takeoff clearance, just before the collision, here is the Vancouver Harbor Safe Navigation Guide and down here is Cole Harbour, here is the location of the

seaplane

base and right here. on this section of water from Brockton points to the Bernabe light sh and below left and right there is an aircraft operating area, stay clear so boats must be in this area to start, Aviation regulations Federal rights of way for water operations are covered here in F 9111 15 paragraph B Crossing When an aircraft or an aircraft and a vessel are on a crossing course, the aircraft or vessel to the right of the others has the RightWay, so technically it appears that, based on this case, the ship was under Canadian RightWay aviation rules. reflect the fs uh here in paragraph one of the states where a plane in the water has another plane on its right, the pilot in command of the first mentioned plane will have to give way, so let's look at the maritime rules according to the ship of the US Foundation calling Dr.

Sal Marano, can you weigh in on this as it relates to maritime rules and help clarify this pecking order that we're about to review? That's Sal Merano from what's happening in shipping. Another great YouTube channel for all things shipping in the boating world. In a crossing situation, you have the standing boat that must maintain course and the yielding boat that must yield to the standing boat. Now, what is the pecking order in the world of navigation? Who should give way to whom? And on this list, the lowest boat. on the list is the ceded ship and must stay out of the way of ships higher on the list, so outnumbered ships start first highest priority ships ships not under command ships with maneuvering capabilities restricted boats limited by draft fishing boats that engage in fishing with gear deployed, sailboats and finally electrically powered boats, so I suspect the seaplane is considered an electrically powered boat, but wouldn't a seaplane also be restricted in your ability to maneuver by placing you higher in the pecking order, so who technically has the access road here now, apart from the access road rules and regulations, the biggest problem in this situation will be the limited visibility, especially In the Beaver, any aircraft with a large radial engine in front will have restricted visibility from the front.

The plane now watches as this Castor takes off. The best opportunity the pilot has to see where the boat would have been before beginning the takeoff roll while the plane is still relatively level in the water is because he observes what happens as soon as he pours the embers into it. Beaver, the nose will rise as you drag the floats through the water, before that point the floats go up to the step and the nose starts to go down like this, even there you still have a pretty high angle of attack and your visibility over the nose It is quite limited.

Also note how you lift each float individually out of the water. Now let's look at it from inside the cabin. This video clip comes from the American Flyer DHC 2. Beaver amphibious float taking off from the water. Landing in Florida. I think they are doing some training here, so here is the beaver sitting idling in the water with his nose relatively. This is the last chance the pilot will really have to be able to see any ship to the right of him. The pilot sitting in the left seat here with this. round hood in front of him and to his right so that as he adds power he watches what happens to the nose, the nose rises as the floats begin to cut through the water and the nose remains at a fairly high angle of attack until the floaters can get on the plane see the stick moving forward the nose goes down a little especially with a heavy load it's going to take a lot longer to take off run there the nose finally goes down a little and they're out of here now here's a clip from Jim Howard about the plane Beaver SE.

Northwest Marine Aircraft from a professional seaplane pilot. The above seemed to be training in progress and look how quickly you can get this out of the water, probably a fairly light load again with the plane idling. the nose is down at its lowest point as soon as you add the power the nose goes up, visibility is restricted especially towards the right side of the plane, once you get on the plane look at it goes all the way to the right after choosing left float up and then right float and he gets out of here you can reduce the prop and the RPM or manifold pressure and the RPM accelerate into ground effect and he gets out of here, fit, fit, fit, I got than to obtain a seaplane rating, now the question also arises, can you refuse a takeoff in a seaplane?

Well sure you can cut the power of course there are no brakes in the water but the plane will slow down very quickly due to the drag of the floats and the plane will still be maneuverable with the water Rudders down in the water so boats potentially operating in a restricted floatplane Area of ​​lack of visibility over the round engine of the Beaver's 985, especially from left to right The RightWay rules floatplanes in front of boats you can start to see the holes in the Swiss cheese line waiting for your comments informed in the comments section below, especially from you.

Seaplane pilots. Especially commercial seaplane pilots. I'm sure this is one of your worst nightmare scenarios. Thank you very much for your support of this channel. The Patreon people who make this content possible see you here.