Son shoots bear that killed his father

Son shoots bear that killed his father at remote cabin in N.W.T. bush
at 23:00 on June 16, 2005, EST.

FORT SMITH, N.W.T. (CP) - Jean Carter stepped out of a float plane expecting to see her husband.

Instead, she was confronted by a black bear that she later learned had killed him. Lifelong bush pilot Merlyn Carter, 71, was found dead Wednesday behind the main cabin of their remote sport fishing camp about 300 kilometres northeast of Fort Smith.

He had gone to the fishing camp on Tuesday to prepare the cabins and boats for the start of the season, expecting his first group of fishermen to arrive Friday, said his eldest son, Dean.

Carter made radio contact with his family Tuesday around 10 p.m., telling them everything was fine and the camp was coming along nicely.

Jean and another son, Myles, flew to the camp Wednesday to bring in groceries and other supplies.

But Merlyn wasn't at the docks to meet them. When Jean got off their Cessna 180, she spotted the bear coming toward her. She tried heading back toward the plane, but the bear caught up.

"She didn't make it back to the airplane," Dean Carter said. "They were screaming, trying to scare the bear off."

The bear was frothing at the mouth as it crouched before Jean. Myles grabbed a ramp used to unload barrels of oil from aircraft and struck the bear once across the face. It stopped, looking stunned.

Then the bear turned and left in the opposite direction of the cabin.

Myles grabbed a gun from the main cabin and shot the bear four times. RCMP say the bear was a two-year-old male.

Myles found his father's body a short distance from the back side of the cabin. His father was unarmed.

The family isn't sure what time he was attacked, but have been told an autopsy will be conducted.

"As tragic as it is, they're very fortunate two of them survived," Dean Carter said.

The Carters ran Carter Air Services and the Nonacho Lake Fishing Camp. The couple were veterans of the Northwest Territories sport fishing industry, said Dean.

A memorial service for Merlyn will be held June 24 at the sports arena in Hay River, N.W.T.

Merlyn earned his pilot's licence in 1954. After buying his first Cessna 180 on floats a few years later, he never flew as captain of an aircraft he did not own.

He'd moved to the North in his teens from his home in Meadow Lake, Sask., when his father expanded his commercial fish-buying business.

In 1963, Carter set up his own commercial aviation business, which at one time operated seven planes.

"He loved the freedom of the North," Dean Carter said. "He was a person that loved the outdoors."

Alongside his aviation business he ran several sport fishing camps that were only accessible by air, sitting hundreds of kilometres from the nearest roads.

"He's an experienced person in these areas," Dean Carter said.

He'd encountered bears before in his travels, and had killed ones who were threatening his fishing camps and wouldn't scare away, he said.

"They're wild animals and they are unpredictable and they are stronger than a person."

Merlyn and Jean Carter were recently honoured by the Northern Air Transport Association for 50 years of service in the aviation industry.

"I did all the flying and Jean did all the work," he told the audience at the time.

He had 25,000 hours of commercial flying experience in the North and Arctic.

The Carter family has produced three generations of pilots.

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