Bush pilot turned entrepreneur Max Ward crashed his much-loved Twin Otter plane in a bay just outside Yellowknife yesterday.
The 78-year-old Canadian aviation icon was not hurt. Also uninjured were three other passengers, including his wife of more than 50 years.
The plane, however, had to be towed ashore and witnesses said it had a broken wing and had lost its floats.
The landing at Yellowknife Back Bay in Great Slave Lake, near the city's core, went awry when the plane hit the water hard. The Wardair founder had sucessfully made the landing many times before.
"Mr. Ward's Twin Otter is a familiar sight," said John Dalton, a former Yellowknife alderman and long-time acquaintance of Mr. Ward, who witnessed the accident's aftermath. "He has one of the nicest Twin Otters flying."
About seven yachts from a nearby club came immediately to the aid of the party. A boat driven by former Northwest Territories premier Don Morin was first on the scene, said Mr. Dalton.
Mr. Dalton described Mr. Ward as an experienced pilot.
"I'd fly with him without any problem whatsoever. He knows every element of that plane."
Mr. Ward watched from a boat as attempts were made to tow the plane ashore. The group did not immediately go to hospital, but the RCMP said one of the four was briefly looked at for "cautionary reasons."
Mr. Ward started his career as a bush pilot and founded Wardair, a chartered airline, in 1953. He bought his first jet in 1967, and soon after, the upstart company began to challenge Canada's largest airlines. In 1989, Wardair was sold for $250-million to Canadian Airlines International Ltd.
Although the former bush pilot retired in 1990, he often used his Twin Otter to fly family to his lodge about 250 kilometres north of Yellowknife.