‘Moving up and down:’ Plane crash survivor says something wrong after takeoff
FOND DU LAC, Sask. — One of the survivors of a plane crash in northern Saskatchewan says he knew something was wrong about 10 seconds after takeoff.
“The plane was just moving up and down, side by side,” said Willie John Laurent, a band councillor with the Fond du Lac Dene Nation who was on the plane. “The last I remember is it touching the ground. That’s the last I know.”
Laurent, his wife Helen and their daughter Amanda were among the 22 passengers — including an infant — and three crew members aboard a West Wind Aviation turboprop that crashed Wednesday around 6:15 p.m. near the remote community of Fond du Lac in the boreal forest area of northern Saskatchewan.
It was scheduled to travel 80 kilometres east to Stony Rapids, then on to Wollaston and Prince Albert.