Obscured vision, perception played role in Tofino, B.C., harbour crash, safety board says

The Transportation Safety Board is highlighting the importance of designated landing areas in harbours that are busy with marine and air traffic as it releases a report on a collision between a floatplane and a water taxi in Tofino, B.C.

The water taxi and a Tofino Air Beaver floatplane carrying six people collided while heading to the same dock in October 2021.

The pilot and passengers were able to safely get out of the aircraft, although three sustained minor injuries, and within minutes it had capsized.

The board says neither the pilot nor the person operating the water taxi realized their routes would conflict until it was too late to take evasive action.

Increased risk of collision

The investigation found factors affecting the perception of both operators contributed to the collision, including that the plane's lower wing and the pilot's seat position interfered with the view and that the taxi operator was focused on the berth, not the plane coming from the starboard side.

The report released Thursday concludes that designated floatplane landing areas can help keep aircraft operating zones free of traffic, and plane and vessel operators aren't aware of each other because they communicate on different radio frequencies.

"If busy harbours that accommodate both vessel and aircraft traffic do not have designated aircraft landing areas, means for aircraft to signal their presence, or vessel speed limits, there is an increased risk of collision as a result of vessels and aircraft operating in proximity at high speeds," it says.

The safety board sent a letter last February to Transport Canada saying there were no speed limits for vessels in the Tofino harbour, and local authorities may have been unaware of the option to ask the federal government to restrict the use of pleasure craft or commercial vessels.

People on dock waving their arms

The investigation shows the floatplane landed on the water about 80 metres away from the water taxi, and the collision occurred about six seconds later.

It says the plane was still in the process of slowing down, and the pilot turned right to reduce the force of impact.

The water taxi operator had been waiting about 300 metres from the dock for a space to open up when he heard radio calls from two other vessels announcing their intentions to leave and started to head in.

The report says the operator then noticed people on the dock waving their arms and trying to warn him of something, and when he turned to look, he saw the plane about 15 metres away.

The report centres on factors including focused attention and visual detection of movement, saying research has shown that stimuli in the peripheral vision are harder to detect when the person's attention is focused on a central task.

It says a person's sensitivity to motion in their peripheral vision is diminished when an object or target is converging on the same point as the viewer.