Photo: Chris Snowball
John Snowball sat in the Brampton Courthouse punching his knee with his fist. He says his counsellor taught him to do that instead of lashing out in anger.
John Snowball at the Brampton Courthouse
Snowball was at the first day of a trial looking into the circumstances surrounding the death of his son Chris. Chris Snowball was a paramedic with Ornge stationed in Moosonee. He was in an air ambulance that crashed on May 31,2013 killing four people. Captain Don Filliter and co-pilot Jacques Dupuy, as well as flight paramedics Dustin Dagenais and Chris were killed shortly after taking off from Moosonee, headed to Attawapiskat.
Snowball says he wants somebody to take responsibility for the crash. “Somebody has got to step up to the plate whether it be Transport Canada or Ornge and say look ya we goofed, we failed to provide for these guys” he told Kawartha 411.
Ornge is facing 8 Labour Code charges in the crash. The Crown Attorney, Nicholas Devolin told the court the crash was “predictable and preventable.” “Ornge failed to ensure the health and safety of it’s employees by permitting pilots to fly without adequate training in the operation of that specific aircraft” he said. “The company failed to provide adequate supervision for the daily flight activities at Moosonee.” he said in his opening arguments.
The Defence Attorney Brian Grover told the court “What happened on May 31 was just a tragic accident” He said Ornge took all reasonable measures to ensure employee safety by meeting all regulatory, company and Ministry requirements.
The first witness to take the stand was Malcolm MacLeod who was the base safety officer for ORNGE in Moosonee at the time of the incident.
He told the court that he had expressed concerns about safety at the base months before the accident.
The Crown produced an email dated Sept. 11, 2012 where MacLeod,said he was concerned about new pilots in Moosonee being scheduled to work night shifts with little to no experience flying in the area. Devolin also said the employees should have had night vision goggles and that with no autopilot on the older aircraft they should have had more instrument training for night flights. Neither were required by regulations at the time of the incident the Defence pointed out. Under questioning Macleod laid out the challenges of night flying in the area and how once the helicopter left the runway it was like flying into a black hole if it was a cloudy night. The Crown alleged the co-pilot had “almost no real world night flying experience at all”. Both pilots were experienced and had thousands of hours under their belt the Defence told the Judge.
John Snowball says they last four years have not been good. “I’d like to get closure in my sons death and the other families would like closure too.” he said.
The trial continues on Wednesday.
