True Warrior and pure spirit

[CANDANeh]

NEW BONAVENTURE (Newfoundland) One man died in a boating accident on the weekend when the boat he was in capsized after a small iceberg rolled on it.

A second man and his seven-year-old grandson survived.

Wade Adey, 49, of Random Island died in the accident Saturday night off New Bonaventure, on the Bonavista Peninsula.

Heroic actions

Police are now calling Adey a hero for his actions to save the young boy -- the same boy he saved from drowning two years ago.

Adey and Don Bannister, 56, of Shoal Harbour, and Bannister's grandson, Tyson, were in the boat at the time.

Police say they sailed alongside a small iceberg to chip some ice off it, but when the axe they were using struck the ice, the berg split and rolled.

All three were thrown in the water when the boat capsized.

Adey and Bannister scrambled to get the boy out of the water and onto an ice pan.

Bannister managed to scramble onto the same piece of ice, but wasn't able to haul Adey out of the water.

Bannister told his grandson to stay put, and jumped back in the water and swam more than 100 metres to shore. He then ran barefoot over two kilometres to the nearest cabin.

Two women then used a rowboat and pieces of wood for oars to reach Tyson, who was still on the ice pan.

Adey died while Tyson was waiting.

The boy's mother, Melita Bannister, says it was a night of heroes.

She says Tyson is now doing fine physically, but it's hard to tell how he's doing psychologically after his ordeal.

"We said to him, 'Tyson, what were you thinking about?' He just said waiting for Pop to come back because his Pop put him on the ice and said, 'Now Tyson, you stay there and we'll be back to get you,'" she says.

"He stayed there and he waited for his Nan to come to and get him."

It was the quick actions of Adey and Bannister that saved the boy, says RCMP Const. Doug Brannen.

"They just did it because it had to be done and I think that is a fantastic testament to their own moral fibre," Brannen says.

It's not the first time Adey proved to be a hero. He rescued Tyson two years ago when he fell overboard while fishing.