Know who vandalized the Hawaii Mars last weekend? Could be worth $5000

Coulson Flying Tankers is offering a $5,000 reward for information about the vandalizing of one of its waterbombers moored at Sproat Lake in Port Alberni, on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

CEO Wayne Coulson told The Province that the weekend damage might have had catastrophic results because of the danger posed to the two pilots and two flight engineers who operate the “Hawaii Mars.” There was a hole found in the fabric of the vertical stabilizer of the plane after someone apparently climbed aboard from the water on Saturday night.

Coulson Flying Tankers
Coulson Flying Tankers, from the martinmars.com website.

The plane was ordered Sunday on a fire on Bowen Island, then turned around by dispatch, so the crew then flew to Lake Cowichan, southeast of their home base, for a training run. They encountered troubles with stability, according to Coulson, and flew back to Sproat Lake, where they discovered a huge hole in the vertical stabilizer.

He said the vandalism occurred late Saturday when someone took a boat to where the Mars was docked. Neighbors reported noise, but the partyers were gone by the time police arrived. The incident’s under investigation by Port Alberni Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and Coulson estimates the damage at about $25,000. The company is adding security guards to their facility.

Typos, let us know HERE, and specify which article. Please read the commenting rules before you post a comment.

3 thoughts on “Know who vandalized the Hawaii Mars last weekend? Could be worth $5000”

  1. Whoa…isn’t a pre-flight (or at least a visual) inspection SOP? The crew is **very** lucky to not be headline news nationwide.

    0
    0
    1. Good point, John. Coulson has had issues before with people in boats sneaking in there. They’ve got security cameras, but this time failed to capture culprits on camera. Adding security guards is good, but you’d think a pre-flight would have found this. Or maybe not. Apparently the rowdy folks who boated in there wanted to get up on the wings and dive off to the water. How they managed to punch a big not-noticed hole in the stabilizer … well, I guess you had to be there. I hope someone scores the $5K.

      0
      0
      1. $5k will get you a lot of Molson.
        Get’em….
        One thing about the crew- these things
        are huge even if the hole was large it may have been difficult to spot. Fabric may even been in place…

        0
        0

Comments are closed.