Seasoned pilot killed in crash

We know a little more tonight about the pilot who died in a horrifying crash at the Brantford airport, yesterday. He has been identified as John Pearson — a resident of St. George, near Brantford.

The crash that claimed the life of 67-year old John Pearson, was a shock to the entire flying community both here in Brantford, and across the country. Pearson was well known both by commercial pilots, and high-performance flyers, as well.

This is the airplane that John Pearson built by hand, and by all accounts loved to fly.

Ray Cameron, Gilbert Custom Aircraft: “It was his retirement dream just to have an open cockpit bi-plane that he could go flyin’.”

Cameron watched Pearson build his Super Skybolt airplane from the ground up: “Yeah he was a lot of fun. He always kept us laughing. He always had a bad joke or two to spread around.”

Pearson was at the controls of the high performance bi-plane yesterday when something, went terribly wrong. The plane crashed at the edge of the Brantford Municipal airport just a couple of hundred meters from where it was built. The 67 year old pilot was killed, instantly. According to witnesses, there didn’t seem to be anything obviously wrong with the plane prior to the crash — and Pearson did not call for help.

Ray Cameron: “He made no radio contact when he returned to the airport, he’d been up flying for about half an hour.”

But Cameron says that Pearson was no amateur pilot: “He had over 20-thousand hours of flight time both with the airlines and the Canadian Air Force.”

Just before his retirement, Pearson had been a flight instructor for Jazz airlines; teaching pilots how to fly Boeing 7-5-7’s. One of the last projects he was involved in, came just a few weeks ago — in collaboration with this television station. Pearson provided the aircraft to promote the Rotary Charity Air show, for a Community Calendar segment here on CHCH. John Bradford — works for the Rotary air show — and was deeply impressed, by Pearson: “You know I wished I had known him a long time before. What a gentle man. What a kind and considerate person, and a great sense of humour.”

The accident is still under investigation by the Transportation Safety Board, and so far there is no explanation for the crash, that claimed the life of such a popular, and experienced pilot.

Even though the aircraft was hand built, the TSB said that this type of aircraft has a very good safety record. Still, they haven’t been able to rule out mechanical failure. Nor have they dismissed the premise that there might have had a medical emergency while Pearson was in the air.

The report on the crash may not be complete for weeks.