Two men landed a small plane on a slab of ice in the Arctic that was just thick enough to support the aircraft, giving the pair enough time to clamber through a window to safety before it sank, say those involved in their rescue on Monday.
Maj. Denis McGuire said the ice the Cessna Skymaster landed on after its twin-engines failed on Sunday evening was newly formed and "mushy," but if the two men from Sweden had been forced to land on water their chances of survival "would have been very, very much lower."
When the plane stopped moving, he said it rapidly started to sink into the frigid ocean as the men scrambled to a nearby, more solid ice floe.
"It's like skating on a pond. When you stop moving all that weight transfers directly down and then there's problems," said McGuire, the director of the joint rescue co-ordination centre in Halifax.
The centre received a mayday signal from the plane at 5 p.m. AT. The men were picked up south of Baffin Island 18 hours later by the Atlantic Enterprise, a boat that was fishing in the area for shrimp.
The captain of the fishing boat identified the men as Oliver Edwards, who was born in Australia but lives in Sweden, and Troels Hansen, originally from Denmark but who is now a Swedish citizen.
Bo Mortensen said Edwards and Hansen were overjoyed when they were brought on board his boat after being stranded on the ice in temperatures that dipped to -20 C overnight.
"They were crying and all that. They were happy to see the boat," said Mortensen, adding that both men appeared to be in good condition other than some minor frostbite on their feet.
"They looked good. They were in good shape. They were a little bit frostbitten on the feet, but they were in good shape."
The men were airlifted to Iqaluit, Nunavut, several hours later and taken to the local hospital for medical assessments.
Mortensen said the men told him the Cessna Skymaster was being flown from the United States to Sweden for delivery to its new owner. They had taken off from Wabush, N.L., and were on their way to Iqaluit when it lost both engines over the Hudson Strait.
McGuire said the pilot had "a vast amount of experience" flying Cessnas.
At the time they were picked up, it was -13 C in Iqaluit, but Mortensen said the weather was generally good.
The veteran fishing captain said his crew wrapped the men in warm clothing and telephoned their families to say they were safe.
Speaking from the bridge of the Atlantic Enterprise, Mortensen said his crew managed to spot the two men waving on the ice after they received a request for assistance from the joint rescue co-ordination centre.
Mortensen said they were wearing neoprene survival suits and life-jackets, but the men told him they had lost their life-raft when the plane sank.
When the pair came aboard they described the terrifying moments after landing on the relatively thin ice.
"The plane sank right away when it came down," said Mortensen.
"They landed on the ice and the window cracked on the plane and they managed to get out. Just after they got out, the plane sank so fast they couldn't get the life-raft out."
In the home office of the fishing boat in Lunenburg, N.S., there was elation at the news of the rescue by the vessel, with a crew of 29 on board.
Peter Matthews, a spokesperson for Clearwater Seafoods, owner of the Atlantic Enterprise, called it "fantastic news" and said people in his office were near tears upon receiving word the rescue had been successful.
John Cottreau, a spokesman with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, said investigators would interview the pilot to find out what happened.
"We are going to assess based on what the pilot tells us how we are going to conduct ourselves further with this particular accident," Cottreau said from Ottawa.
He said any investigation would be difficult because there is no wreckage to examine.
"We're without an aircraft and that makes an investigation more challenging," he said.
"We are certainly looking to talk with them as soon as they are able."
