A passenger in a helicopter that crashed in southern British Columbia in August of 2023 is suing the pilot and also the owner of the heliport where the flight originated, alleging the heliport operators should have done more to prevent the flight from taking place. Taylor Brooke Palmer filed suit Aug. 11 for damages against pilot Vincent Matthew Porteous relating to the serious injuries she suffered in the crash in the Shuswap River east of Enderby. She and another woman, who was also hurt, were allegedly left at the crash scene while Porteous left in a car with another person. Porteous evaded authorities for more than a year before being arrested. He’s facing five criminal charges and two under the Aeronautics Act over the mishap and appears in court in early 2026.
The heliport, which is operated by maintenance and charter company Alpine Helicopters in West Kelowna, about 70 miles from the crash site, is also named in the suit. According to the Vernon Morning Star, Palmer is alleging the heliport “allowed Porteous to fly the helicopter without providing necessary documents such as licences, permits, aircraft registration and insurance.” One of the federal charges facing Porteous is that he made a false representation under the Aeronautics Act. The helicopter went down in shallow water after striking a guy wire on a power pole. The suit alleges the aircraft was being flown “in a dangerous manner” at low altitude over the river.
Seems like a stretch to assume the Heliport had any liability. I don’t see how an automobile parking garage would be responsible for an accident of a cab driver who keeps his cab there…
So thry’re saying the heliport is an enforcement agency, or did they rent the helicopter from the heliport?
I can sympathize with the victims because I lost an experienced chopper pilot friend to a river-crossing wire-strike accident outside of Calgary. He’d flown that stretch many times before, but the wire was new, un-marked, and un-permitted. I nearly lost another friend who caught sight of the wire just barely in time to aggressively avoid it, but his chopper was down for an expensive IRAN for quite a while. I never cross wires except at towers. It’s sometimes a little inconvenient, but I’m pretty sure there won’t wires won’t be above them. Very few wires have orange balls.
As for suing the heliport, the standard procedure these days (apparently even in relatively easy-going Canada) is to sue everyone who might be liable, and let the courts sort it out. If it was their chopper, even on a lease-back, they have some exposure. The only good news in this story is that no one died.
If they owned the helicopter, yes. Otherwise no. When I got a seaplane rating, mostly flying up and down the Arkansas river, my instructor said never fly reference wires. Always fly above the towers either side holding them up.
Another black eye for small operators who are fulfilling a need in areas poorly served by larger companies. How unfortunate that an irresponsible bad apple passed through the net and caused big problems. How much regulation and oversight do we really want? Making car theft illegal hasn’t stopped cartheft. Weeding out the rotten cores before allowing them to carry passengers is a moral, legal and management onus. More regulation will only choke out the smaller operators who do whatever to stay afloat. Sueing a base operator smacks of monetary opportunism at the sole purpose of profiting from a loose affiliation with a criminally accused individual. Does not seem morally justified or reasonable.
Morality aside, this is standard procedure in civil suits – called the “deep pockets” theory. Suing the pilot is pretty much a waste of time because he likely has no money or any assets of value. So, you drag anyone else you can into the suit hoping that someone will have enough money or liability insurance to make it worthwhile. It’s one of the reasons new airplanes are so expensive.
It’s interesting that this is happening in Canada. We expect such shotgun lawsuits here in the states, but I guess they happen in other countries, as well.