Ex-girlfriend last to see Nunavut plane-jumper alive

Navalik Helen Tologanak with her 20-year-old son, Julien Tologanak-Labrie, in Kugluktuk in early April 2009, where the young man then lived. After visiting Yellowknife for a hockey tournament, the young man refused to board an April 12 flight plane back to Kugluktuk. Instead, he ended up on a medical charter flight to Cambridge Bay April 15, suffered an emotional breakdown, then fell to his death after kicking open the plane’s door. (FILE PHOTO)

CAMBRIDGE BAY— Seconds before Julian Tologanak-Labrie stepped out of a King Air 200 flying 7,000 metres above the frozen tundra on April 15, 2009, the 20-year-old looked briefly to one side, a witness told a coroner’s inquest investigating the causes of the young man’s death.

Then, he “jumped right out,” the 19-year-old woman, who was the last person to see Tologanak-Labrie alive, said at the inquest.

Speaking on April 14, she was the last witness to testify before Northwest Territories chief coroner Garth Eggenberger, who makes his final comments and recommendations to an inquest jury in Cambridge Bay today.

How Tologanak-Labrie felt during the last hours of his life became clearer as the sweet-faced teenager, wearing elaborately embroidered felt and caribou fur kamiks, white pants and a black shirt, addressed the inquest, which started April 12 in Cambridge Bay.

The young woman, accompanied by a mental health worker as she testified, spoke in a steady, low voice.

The teenager was the sole passenger on the flight, operated between Yellowknife and Cambridge Bay by Adlair Aviation Ltd.

Returning to Cambridge Bay from Yellowknife after a month of psychiatric treatment, she said she was happy to be heading back home.

She knew Tologanak-Labrie well, she said, because they had briefly been lovers.

Shortly afterwards, she became pregnant, and the young woman, referred to here as C.L., had accused Tologanak-Labrie of sexual assault, she told the inquest.

The charges were later dropped, following a preliminary inquiry.

But C.L. said she didn’t have any bad feelings towards Tologanak-Labrie.

She said she wanted to be friendly with him, although she said she wasn’t sure how he felt and didn’t see him often.

Tologanak-Labrie was sad and nervous during the flight to Cambridge Bay, she said.

C.L. sat opposite Tologanak-Labrie in the small aircraft.

During the two-hour, 750-kilometre trip, Tologanak-Labrie borrowed her cell phone and started looking at some photos.

A photo of her young son particularly distressed him, she told the inquest.

When Tologanak-Labrie saw this photo, he asked her “whose child is he” and other questions. He started walking up and down the aisle.

“I was getting nervous,” C.L. said. “I didn’t know what to do.”

Then, Tologanak-Labrie started shaking the back door of the small aircraft.

However, even before that moment, about a half an hour away from the flight’s scheduled arrival in Cambridge Bay, C.L. she said found Tologanak-Labrie “mostly sad.”

He was not like his normal outgoing and happy self, when they had sat earlier in the waiting area of Adlair’s shared passenger terminal in Yellowknife, she said.

“He just looked at the floor,” she said.

C.L. said she mentioned this to someone, but couldn’t recall to whom she spoke about her concerns.

But she told the inquest she had been worried that Tologanak-Labrie might be thinking of suicide.

After he started shaking the door of the plane, the pilots shouted “Whoa! Whoa!,” she said.

Then they asked Tologanak-Labrie what he was doing and to sit down.

After briefly complying, Tologanak-Labrie left his seat, kicking and pounding the door, C.L. and co-pilot Anthony Hanlon, each said.

Hanolon also appeared as a witness at the inquest.

The captain of the flight, Craig George, attempted various in-air maneuvers, including steep turns and rolling the plane from side to side, in attempt to knock Tologanak-Labrie off his feet.

Hanlon, a slim, light-framed man like the other pilot, said he didn’t think he could physically restrain Tologanak-Labrie, who stood about six feet tall and weighed about 200 pounds.

“I didn’t feel it was safe to try and physically intervene,” said Hanlon, who had been changing into warm winter gear and didn’t even have his boots on when the disturbance began.

Hanlon said he worried Tologanak-Labrie’s actions could lead to the “explosive decompression” of the aircraft, a possibility if the door opened while the cabin was still pressurized at 7,000 metres.

The situation was very dangerous, Hanlon said, because this kind of sudden decompression could possibly break up the plane in midair.

As flight captain, George decided to dump the pressure in the plane to deprive Tologanak-Labrie of oxygen and force him to slow down.

The oxygen masks in the aircraft automatically lowered.

But the door of the aircraft opened under the force of Tologanak-Labrie’s repeated kicking.

Tologanak-Labrie paused for a second, then jumped.

Tologanak-Labrie was likely hit by sudden pressure changes, lack of oxygen and cold temperatures when he first exited the aircraft, said a letter from the office of the medical examiner of Alberta, which was entered as evidence.

Tologanak-Labrie likely survived the fall from 7,000 metres, but died of “multiple blunt injuries,” when he land on the ground, the letter said.

At one point during the April 14 description of Tologanak-Labrie’s last moments, his mother, Navalik Helen Tologanak, fainted.

Many of Tologanak-Labrie’s family and friends also cried when witnesses recounted details of the last half-hour of his life.

The jury of six, made up of residents of Cambridge Bay, is expected to produce recommendations designed to prevent a similar death later today.