There have been at as many as 13 people killed in four fatal crashes of DHC-2 Beavers in the last two weeks, three of them in Canada, but it would appear the plane’s reputation as a rugged performer will stay intact. On July 11, two people died in a Beaver crash in central Ontario and a day later three of four people aboard a Beaver were killed in a crash near Chibougamau, Quebec. Last Monday at least three people died and four were missing in a crash on a remote lake in Labrador while on Friday one male passenger was killed in a takeoff accident in Alaska. Although a search is on for the four missing crash victims in Labrador, it’s considered unlikely that any survived.
Despite the rash of accidents, there doesn’t seem to be any concern about the inherent safety of the aircraft. “Even if it’s 50 years old or more, there is no modern plane that can compare to the Beaver, and that’s why it’s still very popular among outfitters, seaplane operators and companies whose business is to fly people in the bush,” Gilles Lapierre, past president of Aviateurs Quebec, told the CBC.