A Transportation Safety Board (TSB) update released on Jan. 28 contains new information about the investigation into a fatal float-plane crash off Saturna Island in November.

TSB staff say the crash outcome echoes several of the board’s findings and recommendations from previous float-plane accidents.

These include findings that “seaplanes may not be optimally designed to allow easy occupant escape while under water” and that “occupants of submerged seaplanes who survive the accident continue to be at risk of drowning inside the aircraft.”

Only two of the eight passengers, including the pilot, escaped the sinking wreckage of the Seair-operated de Havilland Beaver and survived the Nov. 29 tragedy.

The plane was travelling from Saturna Island’s Lyall Harbour to the Vancouver International Airport.

“The winds were generally from the southeast, but gusting and variable. In open areas, the wind was blowing to about 30 knots,” reads the TSB report. “Once airborne, the aircraft remained below the surrounding terrain and during a turn to the left, it descended and collided with the water near the north shore of the harbour.”

Bill Yearwood, the TSB’s lead investigator for the incident, has determined that the plane did not crash as a result of engine failure.

“We’ve determined that the engine was producing significant power at the time of impact,” he said. “Examination of the wreckage and the continuing investigation has not found any problems with engine power or any control mechanism malfunctions.”

According to the report, only the doors beside the survivors’ seats popped open as a result of the crash.

“The left cabin door, which is normally used for embarking and disembarking passengers, was jammed shut from the airframe’s deformation on impact,” states the report.

“Neither of the survivors donned lifejackets and none of the available lifejackets had been removed from the aircraft.

“Five were still in their storage pouches,” it continues.

“Five of the passengers remaining in the aircraft were free from their seatbelts.”

Yearwood confirmed the six crash victims survived the plane’s impact with the water and drowned after the aircraft sank.

The crash has focused the TSB’s attention on a number of float-plane safety issues such as the use of jettisonable or push-out emergency exits on seaplanes, underwater egress training for air crew, aircraft handling characteristics and the wearing of personal floatation devices.”

The investigation has prompted questions as to why similar recommendations forwarded by the TSB to Transport Canada as a result of past incidents were not adopted.

Investigators are conducting flight tests on a similar aircraft and examining wind conditions to determine if they may have been a factor in the crash.

The TSB has established that the aircraft was “in good serviceable condition before impact.”

Yearwood said he expects to conclude the investigation by the end of the year.