WINNIPEG -- A pilot responsible for a harrowing plane crash on a busy Winnipeg street was not criminally negligent, Manitoba's highest court has ruled.
In a 35-page decision released yesterday, the Manitoba Court of Appeal overturned one conviction of criminal negligence causing death and four convictions of criminal negligence causing bodily harm against former Keystone Air pilot Mark Tayfel.
Tayfel remains convicted of dangerous operation of an aircraft.
Former Queen's Bench Justice Holly Beard convicted Tayfel in 2007 after ruling he had no reasonable excuse for running out of fuel. In March 2008, he was sentenced to two years house arrest.
While Tayfel's fuel calculations were clearly flawed, his conduct otherwise "did not show a complete disregard for the consequences of his actions," wrote Justice Barbara Hamilton.
"However flawed his conduct was in addressing the sufficiency of the fuel for the flight, I am of the view that this conduct, when considered in the context of all the evidence, is not conduct that meets the very high threshold of wanton or reckless disregard for the lives and safety of other persons," Hamilton wrote.
Tayfel was carrying six American passengers aboard a twin-engine plane when it crashed at the intersection of Logan Avenue and McPhillips Street in June 2002. The plane crashed after it ran out of fuel during a flight back from a northern Manitoba fishing lodge.
Passenger Chester Jones, a 79-year-old Kansas resident, died of his injuries three months later.
At his trial, Tayfel blamed the crash on faulty fuel gauges. He said he inspected the plane's gauges before takeoff at Gunisao Lake and believed he had plenty of fuel for the return trip to Winnipeg.
Court heard Tayfel had complained to his chief pilot at Keystone Air he didn't have a working autopilot on the plane and no measures were taken to replace or fix it. He also wasn't supplied with a co-pilot, a move that might have prevented the crash, argued defence lawyer Belfour Der.
A retired Air Canada pilot who testified on Tayfel's behalf said small air services often overlook safety requirements if they cut into profits.
Beard said Tayfel was a "fine person who made a terrible mistake" and rejected the Crown's assertion Tayfel was trying to save his own reputation when he delayed alerting air traffic controllers of his dire situation.
"Mr. Tayfel responded to the emergency in a calm and professional manner," she said.
Improving safety standards can more effectively be achieved by enforcing regulations, not by "locking up pilots after the fact," Beard said.
Beard said she hoped her ruling would be a signal to the airline industry that placing profits over safety is criminal behaviour.
dean.pritchard@sunmedia.ca
