At around 4PM today Sarah and I were at Save On Food in Richmond doing some grocery shopping. There was a loud boom sound. At first I thought it was a car accident. However, upon existing Save On Food we discovered that a small Piper Seneca twin-engine aircraft had crashed into the ninth floor of a apartment building half a block away.
The small aircraft, believed to be carrying two people, left the runway at Vancouver International Airport at 4:02 p.m. local time and was headed to nearby Pitt Meadows, B.C., said Kate Donegani, a spokeswoman for the airport authority.
Police have not released any details on injuries or death. Sarah was able to take these photos of the crash using my Canon S3 digital camera with the 12X zoom.
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wow, sad. great photos though.
We used to own an apartment in that same apartment tower, but on the 13th floor! We were so shocked to find out this happened today.
I was a block away 5 mins after it happened. I saw the Asian lady screaming and yelling to the firefighters below, from INSIDE the apartment that the plane hit! She seemed very confused as she kept on walking back and forth…my presumption is that the plane was probably blocking her from exiting her apartment. More pics and tidbits of info on my blog.
Or she was simply shocked and still haven’t realized what was happening.
Sad news ..
Where’s the plane? Was it a little model plane or something? Looks like it flew through the window. Did you stage this by flying in the plane yourself by remote and then taking pictures?
Hilarious comment. I can imagine evil Chow with his little remote control with a sneaky smile.
It’s a great way to get more RSS subscribers to beat Shoemoney
I don’t need to crash a plane into a building to beat Shoemoney! But it may help.
Wow, it’s a great thing the plane didn’t crash on you, I just submitted a reviewme and you are still ALIVE!
Don’t worry…remember? John was holding the remote control directing the plane!
Bad taste
Or .. he could have thrown a big rock at that window
Great that you had your camera handy. Those were some great pictures…pro style. But for some people, it was like a mini 9/11 event. No! ‘event’ is a stupid word to use here! It is too pleasing.
But was there anyone hurt?
Are you kidding me? Mini-9/11? I can’t believe people would actually say something that ridiculous. I read someone else saying it was like 9/11 in the Toronto Star earlier. Do you seriously think it’s anything like 9/11? It’s just an accident…not jihad.
Man, people just blow things out of proportion…
Not that I mean it was exactly like 9/11. You misunderstood me. I meant that it was similar… no, similar is not a good word too…maybe has the same atmosphere…no that’s not good either. Oh, I give up, but I think you get the idea. Do you?
No, it has no similarities to 9/11 whatsoever. There is no hijacking, there’s little destruction, there’s no geo-political influences, there’s no religious motives, nothing. To suggest that this is anything even remotely similar to 9/11 is disrespect to everyone involved in that day’s events…or even people not involved. Other than the fact that a plane and a building are involved, there is absolutely nothing to correlate the two events. To say this is anything like 9/11 is like…Fox News tells us we have to be afraid of killer-f’n-bees every night or people that believe everything is somehow an act of terrorism.
You may want to learn the definition of “jihad” and find out what it truly means. Im sick and absolutely tired of people classifying bin ladens stupid actions as jihad. Jihad holds and elevated status in islam and no one like bin laden can use it as an excuse for their stupid actions.
I know your trying to calm the situation down but 9/11 was NOT jihad.
/rant
But for some of us poor uneducated fools when Bin Laden and his gang make these statements we assume that is what it is. A bit like when a non techy quotes a techy but gets everything mixed up!
I guess your right…either way bin ladens a fool.
Update: RCMP just announced that the pilot has died, two people who were in the room were rushed to hospital.
Oh dear me…
Oh crap… now I feel insensitive…
You ARE insensitive, Stephen. You ain’t kidding me
[...] my picture. I just grabbed it from The Globe and Mail since I didn’t have my camera on me. John was also on the scene and has some better [...]
This is a sad news. My prayer go to those involved in the accident.
damn john you always have your camera on you huh
You think John is geeky huh? Leo Laporte is more!!
Of course! You never know when a plane might crash into a building.
This is why I don’t fly.
Do you drive? Road accidents happen more frequently than air crashes.
Especially in Richmond! I see one every time I enter city limits.
Dude, tell me you`re joking ….. !
It’s true. Do you hear more about road accidents or air crashes?
He’s not. Statistically speaking, air travel is incredibly safe.
But don’t they base it on miles travelled? Fewer people travelling further miles per journey and of course stats can make it safer, then again statistics can prove anything.
Any reason given that the plane crashed? Is it near an airport?
It is about 5 minutes or less from the Vancouver airport.
Richmond is home to the Vancouver International Airport and the plane had just taken off from it. Somewhere along the way, something happen that made the plane bank to the right and slammed into the building.
After you leave the runway, there’s nothing to hit, and Richmond is pretty much flat. Something bad must have happened.
Wow, that’s creepy. o.0
Who is Sarah?
John’s wife
My wife.
When are people going to learn that these small planes just aren’t safe? Don’t make me go down the list of celebrities that have died in them…let alone regular joes. It’s sad…but then again what were they doing so close to the ground in the first place?
You just happen to be there with your digital camera, incredible. Well, always be prepared I guess.
Once in a while bad things happen. Has the news of any injuries being released? I hope there are no fatalities though…
The pilot died. R.I.P. I hate hearing news like this it just shows how valuable life really is…
This must mean that something good is about to happen to John Chow…
Life is fun when flying in the sky. the pilot has enjoy his life to fullest. It just that nobody will know it happen like that. RIP. mate!
Yeah what a great way to go, right into an apartment complex…
Click for Nick
That’s crazy. I saw this earlier on CTV News. I hope no one died in that.
All the news guys were parked outside our place in Richmond reporting live…pretty funny seeing these guys scrambling to get this all on the 6 o’clock news…
It’s really sad. Now a days anything can happen at any time in your life. Those people staying in that flat on the ninth floor must have not thought in their weirdest dream that something like this is going to happen with them today. Really life is too uncertain.
There are 100’s of small planes that use that airport daily and hundreds of passenger planes every day that take off and land from YVR.
So to say.. small planes are not safe.. is like saying driving a car isn’t safe.. because they occasionally hit each other.
Did you know that only the ones that crash are reported? The thousands of planes that land and take off safely everyday are not… They do not report in the news saying that Flight 101 had a successful landing. They just report the mishaps and they do not happen often.
This is the same at any major international airport… some have 1000’s of planes taking off and landing everyday without incident… month after month .. without incident.
Seems like a lot of small plane crashes lately. We just had one somewhere around here (I live in Upstate NY). Wonder if the wacky weather is messing them up or something?
Wow, how scary is that?!?!
Thoughts are with the people who lost their lives though
Sad thing to happen…