FedEx Plane crash/Downtown Winnipeg

Ouch ... sounds like no one on the ground was hurt though. Incredible

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - A Cessna 208 carrying cargo for FedEx Corp. crashed near a major downtown intersection in Winnipeg early on Thursday, killing its pilot, the only person on board, but sparing injury on the ground.


The plane crashed on railway tracks in the western Canadian city just before 6 a.m. (1100 GMT), leaving only a "twisted heap" of wreckage behind, local radio CJOB said. The crash occurred close to an intersection of several major streets that is known locally as "Confusion Corner."

The plane, which was on its way to Thunder Bay, Ontario from Winnipeg, was owned, operated and maintained by FedEx subcontractor Morningstar Air Express Inc., FedEx Canada spokeswoman Karen Cooper told the radio station.

"We're working with local Winnipeg authorities, the national Transportation Safety Board of Canada to determine what has happened," she said.

Police and federal aviation inspectors were on the scene.

Winnipeg was hit by an unusually early and heavy snowfall on Wednesday.

Another story says that the woman called in about 10 minutes after take-off and said she needed to come back in because the plane was icing up. Sound like she made great efforts to avoid buildings and people on the ground, and succeeded, when the plane crashed.

The viruses onboard sound like they were completely destroyed in the fire ... thank goodness. This lady was definately heroic.

By DAVID SCHMEICHEL and PAUL TURENNE, Staff Reporters


Emergency crew and officials recover the body of the pilot, identified by various sources as Nancy Chase Allen, 49. (BRIAN DONOGH, Sun)

A female pilot died early yesterday morning when her single-engine cargo plane crashed on a railway track in Osborne Village.

The plane -- a single-engine Cessna 208 owned by Morningstar Air Express Inc. that was carrying freight for FedEx -- crashed on the CNR Rivers line just before 6 a.m., missing the nearby Masonic Memorial Temple and high-rise apartment blocks up Donald Street.

Trevor Mueller was waiting across the Red River for the Winnipeg Rowing Club to open yesterday morning when the plane passed overhead from the east. He said the craft wobbled, then slammed into the west shore of the river.

Flames, smoke

"I could see its control lights and hear its engine. I saw a sudden flutter. It looked like a bobble in its flight path. I knew something was up," said Mueller, a volunteer search and rescue spotter. "About 10 seconds later I heard a pop. I could see flames shooting out of it but mostly smoke -- lots of smoke."

The plane left Winnipeg International Airport at 5:35 a.m., according to Winnipeg Airport Authority spokeswoman Christine Alongi. Air traffic controllers sounded the crash horn at 5:45 a.m., immediately notifying 911, the airport's Data Centre, and the Transportation Safety Board, she said.

Transit driver Larry Preweda said he came upon the scene minutes later.

"I was going under the underpass and I started to see a little bit of smoke, but I didn't think anything of it," said Preweda, a transit operator for 17 years. "But as I got by it, I saw there was this huge ball of flames and twisted metal sitting on the tracks ... There was one other guy there in the parking lot, and he said right away it was a plane that crashed."

Preweda said the ball of flames was at least six metres high, noting a chain link fence with barbed wire on top prevented him from getting too close to the wreckage.

"I don't think, from looking at it, that anybody could have survived," he said. "It was just all flames and wreckage -- you could barely make out the plane."

Officials weren't releasing the victim's name, but numerous sources confirmed it was former Winnipegger Nancy Chase Allen, 49. The pilot, who had worked for Morningstar for five years, spent three years in Winnipeg before moving to Moncton, N.B., two years ago.

Ken Sim, deputy chief of operations for the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service, confirmed the plane was engulfed in flames by the time emergency crews arrived.

"The aircraft was very significantly burned, so obviously a fair amount of fuel was involved," Sim said from the scene.

The closest business to the crash site was the Urban Canine dog daycare, located on the second floor of the CJ Storage building about 100 metres south of the tracks.

Straight down

"Obviously we're lucky in one sense that we didn't have a plane crash into a building or something like that," said police spokesman Patrol Sgt. Kelly Dennison.

Ross Peden, an inspector with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, said a preliminary investigation suggests the plane dropped straight down when it crashed.

"It looks like it came down vertically," said Peden.

"It touched down very close to where it wound up."

Officials confirmed the pilot was trying to return to the airport when she crashed.

Peden said it's too early to tell what caused the crash but did say it's possible weather played a factor.

Alongi said operating conditions at the airport were normal when the Cessna took off.

According to Environment Canada, the temperature at the airport at 5:30 a.m. was hovering between -1 C and zero, with light snow and a north wind of about 30 km/h. It was overcast with a 1,000-foot ceiling and visibility of about 6.5 km.

Don Boettcher, director of operations for Edmonton-based Morningstar, said yesterday's crash marks the first fatality for Edmonton-based Morningstar, the primary freight carrier for Fed-Ex.