A TECHNICAL expert from Calgary, Canada and a pilot from  Florida, U.S.A., died on Saturday, April 13 in a plane crash at Plaisance, East Coast Demerara, after their United States

registered twin-engine airplane lost power and crashed into a house shortly after takeoff from nearby Ogle International Airport.
Nick Dmitriev, 54, was a system operator with Digital World Mapping Inc. and part of a LIDAR mapping and imaging project in Guyana. The plane was on a technical survey mission for the Amaila Falls hydropower access road to do a LIDAR survey for the best geometrical and other alignments for the road.
Dmitriev’s role was to ride in the aircraft and monitor data to create topographic maps and he had been with the company since its inception in 2004.
The pilot was 71-year-old Pierre Angiel but the enormity of his death has not yet fully sunk in, said Morgan Steeves, President of Digital World Mapping Inc.
He said that at the Calgary office, staff were passing around photos and sharing stories of Dmitriev yesterday.  “It’s been horrific to say the least, to deal with it,” Steeves said.    According to him: “We operate our business more like our family and it’s a great loss that we encountered here. He will certainly be missed.”
Dmitriev leaves a wife and two daughters who travelled here to make final arrangements for returning his remains to Calgary. Dmitriev had moved to Canada from Russia in 1990, according to a company statement, which said he was the author of three patents and 10 scientific publications.
He and Angiel were going on a mapping assignment when the twin-engine aircraft lost power in one engine during takeoff, Steeves said.
Steeves said his understanding of what happened next is that Angiel was trying to get the plane back on the ground in an open area when part of it struck a tree and he lost control, causing it to crash into a dwelling house in a residential area not far from the airport.
“They had just left the airport with a full load of fuel, so it was essentially a fireball upon impact,” Steeves said, his voice shaking. He said it is too soon to know what exactly went wrong.
Angiel had worked on several of the company’s projects over the years and was a veteran pilot with more than 50,000 hours of experience flying twin-engine planes, said Steeves.
And Dmitriev was an irreplaceable part of the Calgary-based team who will be greatly missed, the company said in an official statement yesterday. The company’s managing director is currently in Guyana with Dmietrev’s family, the statement said, without naming him.
It added: “We would like to express our sincerest condolences to Nick’s wife and daughters, as well as the family of Pierre Angiel, the pilot of the aircraft.”
Dmitriev and Angiel loved doing what they did, Steeves said. Dmitriev loved the travel and excitement of his job, meeting new people, trying new food. He was a good man. “Nick has earned his wings.”