Bystanders helped push the plane across the muddy beach to shore, where it was lifted out by helicopter on Wednesday.
The pilot’s old adage is: Any landing you can walk away from is a good one. It doesn’t, however, cover takeoffs.
A plane that made an emergency landing on a Courtenay beach on Tuesday after RCMP said it reportedly ran out of fuel later crashed when the pilot attempted to take off across the mud flats at low tide after refuelling.
After bouncing madly across the ground across the muddy estuary near the Courtenay Airpark, the plane dug its propellor into the ground, doing an impromptu nose stand before coming to an abrupt halt.
Comox RCMP said the pilot was uninjured, and no evidence of fuel leakage was found from the crash.
Bystanders helped push the plane across the muddy beach to shore, where it was lifted out by helicopter on Wednesday.
The plane is a Van’s RV-6A, a two-seat, single-engine homebuilt airplane sold in kit form by Van’s Aircraft, and appeared based out of Duncan as of June 3.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) has been contacted for comment, but a report byCHEK Newssaid the federal organization would likely not be investigating the matter, considering it a Class 5 incident — one that has a low “likelihood of identifying new safety lessons that will advance transportation safety.”
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