The wife of one of the six people killed when a plane crashed and burned near the airport in Fort Smith, NWT, says she can’t believe it’s been a year since the tragedy occurred.
“I feel lost,” Bev Chepelsky said.
“Joel is someone who just did everything right, you know, if you’re having a bad day…missing it, it’s really hard because I don’t have my friend, my husband, to help me feel good.”
Chepelsky’s husband, Joel Tetso, was on the Northwest Air Leasing plane that crashed shortly after takeoff early on the morning of Jan. 23, 2024. The aircraft had been bringing a crew of workers to the diamond mine Diavik.
There were seven people on board and only one survived the accident.
A candlelight memorial is planned at St. John’s Anglican Church in Fort Smith starting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday to mark the anniversary of the crash and remember the community members who died.
Chepelsky said her husband, a father of three, is already remembered and talked about every day. She described him as a devoted father, an outdoorsman who provided for the family and a hockey player.
Tetso worked two-week shifts in Diavik as a heavy-duty mechanic. He called his family every day during those periods, Chepelsky said, and every time he left Fort Smith for work, he would gently wake his daughter Yevah and sons Avery and Brody to tell them he loved them.
“My children know, however, that their father loved and adored them. And Joel also left knowing that he was loved and appreciated,” she said. “His love is still in our house.”
Transportation Safety Board investigation continues
The NWT’s top coroner previously told CBC News that the plane, a British Jetstream aerospace plane, crashed about 500 meters from the end of the runway at Fort Smith Regional Airport.
Four passengers and two Northwest Air Leasing crew members were killed, including the 24-year-old flight crew member. Paszolo albaand heavy equipment operator of 30 years Howie Benwell.
Benwell’s sister, Crystal Benwell, said it’s been a difficult year marked by ups and downs.
“Howie is greatly missed,” he said. “He had this incredible presence about him, it was like a healing presence because he was always funny and knew how to cheer people up. It was really hard to deal with that, to be taken away… not expecting it.”
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada told CBC News this week it is still investigating what happened.
Sophie Wistaff, a media relations person for the board, did not say when a final report would come out, but that investigations of this nature were typically completed within 450 days, about a year and four months.
Wistaff said it could take longer due to the “complexity” of the investigation and delays “during various related activities.”
The board said the wreckage of the plane is still being stored in a secure location in the Edmonton area.
Memorial event planned in Fort Smith
Fort Smith Mayor Dana Fergusson said he hopes the memorial event Thursday night will bring closure to those in the community who are seeking it.
The plan, he said, is to ring bells at 6:42 pm as a way to mark the moment, at 6:42 am, that the accident occurred.
Fergusson said Fort Smith, a community of about 2,500 people, is a close-knit place and the disaster spread through everyone in the community.
“Whether you know them directly or indirectly, you have been affected in some way by the loss,” he said.
Fergusson said the day of the accident started like many others, with her household getting ready for work and school. Then she started getting reports that something had happened.
Fergusson, a city councilor at the time, headed to the municipal office and checked in with his senior administrative officer before heading to the airport. There, he was tasked with providing drinks and food to people and responders.
She said her own son was initially scheduled to be on the plane, but he had changed his flight earlier in the month.
Fergusson is grateful to the Fort Smith community and beyond for the outpouring of support that occurred after the accident.
Chepelsky, too, holds on to a sense of gratitude, both for the two decades she had with her husband, and for the way her community has wrapped itself around her family.
“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else…going through what we’re going through,” he said. “They help in ways they don’t even realize I need.”
