Where Governments Failed, Relatives And Friends Succeed

After the Canadian government said it could find no trace of a deHavilland Beaver that went down off of Quadra Island near Vancouver, British Columbia last February, Lilianne Langevin, Kevin Decock and other relatives of the five victims on board simply couldn't stand it. They needed closure.

Wednesday, they'll get it.

Langevin, Decock and some 20 other friends and relatives raised more than $35,000 to find the plane's wreckage and bring home the bodies of those who were on board. They organized hundreds of volunteers to help search the ocean floor near Quadra Island. They succeeded. The aircraft was located by unmanned subs some 780-feet below the surface. The Beaver was found almost vertical, its nose buried in the mud.

After one of those unmanned subs attached a line to the wreckage Tuesday, the deHavilland was to be raised to within 30 feet of the surface, where Royal Canadian Mounted Police divers will search for bodies.

"We have a mixture of feelings. We don't know what to expect," Langevin told the Globe and Mail newspaper.

"We've been wondering if we'll find them inside, and we're just hoping that's where they're going to be," Decock said.

At least one of the four victims won't be found in the wreckage. Passenger David Stevens' body washed ashore soon after the mishap. But authorities hope they'll find brothers Doug and Trevor Decock, Fabian Bedard and pilot Arnold Feast still on board.

Once the wreckage is raised and the bodies recovered, family members say they hope to find out just what caused the mishap.

Everyone wants to know what happened. What caused the crash?" RCMP Constable Dave Hay told the Globe and Mail. the Canadian Transportation Safety Board will investigate.

Relatives will have to pay for those answers, however. Even after spending the $35,000 they raised to find and salvage the deHavilland, families of the five victims will have to pay another $13,000 for the recovery efforts.

FMI: www.tsb.gc.ca/en/index.asp