"Everyone talks about the weather,
but nobody does anything about it."
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Points to Ponder: Nav Canada.
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Thursday, 26 June 2003: In mid June I had the feeling we were getting somewhere with access to some otherwise internal information at Nav Canada - Canada's privatized air traffic control company.
A very experienced and knowledgable private pilot, who was one of my local skywatcher friends, had recently attended a convention where he was able to approach some NavCan representatives and discuss - using pilot talk - the strange aerial activity that he had been observing in the Georgian Bay area.
A senior manager at NavCan, Garry MacDonald Manager ACC Operations, Toronto was able to obtain clearance to supply us with some radar data tracks from the NavCan operations centre.
We requested records from two particular days, one being 16 June 2003 which was a day of great chemtrail spraying activity and the other of the following day when nothing was seen in the skies of the Georgian Bay area. We wanted the same scale and,in effect, a matching pair.
For convenience the images were faxed directly to me and received here 20 June with accompanying letters of transmittal.
The images received are below at a reduced scale.
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Unfortunately the day we were particularly interested in (Monday, the sixteenth) when heavy aerial activity was seen was not supplied and the following day, the eighteenth had been substituted instead. In addition the scale of 45.1 Nmiles, which was appropriate on the first, was found to be 150.0 Nmiles on the second. The filters disabled were different but I have no knowledge of how significant that would be under the circumstances.
In both cases the centre of the image is said to represent Georgian Bay but actual interpretation is difficult to say the least.
In fact, this whole exercise has become very difficult in more ways than one.
After receiving these faxes I placed a call to my pilot friend on Monday, 20 June describing what I saw in the faxes. Paul Daoust was unavailable and I missed his return call although he left a lengthy, detailed message at 5.11pm ending with the suggestion that we should meet on Thursday, 26 June.
That was the last I heard from him. Paul took off from Huronia Airport at 7.00am the following morning on a planned trip that he had made many times before in his Mooney to Naples, Florida.
It appears that his aircraft suffered mechanical problems shortly after take off when out over Georgian Bay and his Mayday was reported to the local authorities at 7.40am via the London, Ontario dispatch centre.
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This is the first report published in the local newspaper:
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Plane crashes just off shore in Wasaga Beach
Jun. 25, 2003
The search for survivors of a single-engine airplane crash on Nottawasaga Bay early Tuesday morning, continued late into the afternoon.
At 7:40 a.m., Collingwood OPP received a call that an airplane was in distress over the bay, just east of Collingwood.
After a two-hour search by the police, along with members of the Huronia West detachment, the Canadian Coast Guard, the Collingwood and Huronia West OPP Marine Units and the Rescue Co-ordination Centre, the crash site was found 4.5 kilometres north of Beach Area 6 at Wasaga Beach.
"Our dive team (from) Collingwood just arrived," said Const. Steve Hardisty communications officer with the Collingwood OPP. "The aircraft was located in 80 feet of water about four-and-a-half kilometres from shore."
The OPP Underwater Search and Rescue Unit is on scene and officers from both detachments are conducting a shoreline search, he added.
"Transport Canada will investigate the reason for the crash and our people will assist them," said Hardisty. "They'll arrange for the recovery of the wreckage to do their investigation."
Although unconfirmed at press time, the plane apparently departed from the airport in Midland and was travelling to Collingwood.
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Please see additional newspaper articles on the loss published 27 June and 2 July
with one describing the mystery of the missing life jacket:
Paul Daoust.
The page will open in a separate window -
it may be kept open, minimized or closed to return here.
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Paul made a good ditching - as far as any ditching can be "good" - but it has been reported that he succumbed to hypothermia after the aircraft sank. It took two hours for those involved to find the location of the downed aircraft.
Paul will be sadly missed in many ways - he was helpful here in guiding me through air navigation charts, he knew the various airspaces and which air controllers would control such areas. He was determined to gain answers from Nav Canada about the chemtrail spraying - who was doing it and why - and he had the ability to do so in a manner that non-pilots do not. As a pilot, he knew that what was being seen in the sky was not normal as he was thoroughly familiar with flight paths over the Georgian Bay area and the look of normal vapour trails.
He said that he felt Nav Canada were giving him the "run-around" but he was going to pursue them until he received reasonable answers...
Needless to say - our sincerest condolences go out to his family and his many friends far and wide.
The Globe & Mail - 26 June:
DAOUST, Paul George
Suddenly on Tuesday, June 24, 2003 in his 57th year.
Dear father of Juli. Survived by his brothers and sisters; Ann, Norma and her husband Dave, Maurice, David and his wife Wendy, Dennis and his wife Louise, George and his wife Winnie, and many nieces and nephews. Predeceased by his brother Larry. A graveside service will be held at St. Patrick's Cemetery, Perkinsfield on Friday, June 27th at 4 p.m. A gathering of family and friends will be held at a later date. Memorial donations to Leukemia Research Foundation would be appreciated. Funeral arrangements entrusted to the Nicholls Funeral Home, 330 Midland Avenue, Midland L4R 3K7 (800-431-6018)
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You always loved that lake
Update: The Transportation Safety Board of Canada final report on this accident - 18 May 2004.
AVIATION INVESTIGATION REPORT A03O0156 - pdf
You are invited to contact us at the "Holmestead".
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