Let’s meet: Danny Sitnam
There are moments you measure your life by, as in before and after. For Danny Sitnam, that day was late August in 1977. He was working as a line cook at the Owl and Oarsman up on a hill overlooking Vancouver.
He was taking a break when a helicopter landed in the field next to the restaurant. Little did he know, within the next 30 minutes his life would change. The pilot offered him a ride and, from that moment forward, his new life began.
He abandoned his dream of starting a machine shop with his father and became an aviation innovator. First, figure out how to afford to learn how to fly. He scrapped together enough money to buy a stake in a helicopter that would become a flight school.
After a stint in the Yukon as a bush pilot, he headed back to Vancouver. Keen to do something more than fly in the back country, one day as he and his wife were driving over the Lions Gate Bridge, they watched sea planes flying passengers to Victoria. “Why don’t you do that with helicopters?” she said, “Nah, that won’t work!” replied Danny.
But the idea wouldn’t go away. A few days later, he was approached by the owner of a helicopter who was trying to unload the aircraft. Danny convinced him to set aside selling the helicopter and said, “I have an idea, but it’s going to need a bigger aircraft.” Thus Helijet was born.
It was a logistical nightmare to make it happen – no landing pad in Vancouver or Victoria. So he convinced the federal government to build a couple and he would manage them. Obstacle one hundred of one hundred thousand cleared. Next: money. No one would finance the deal. So his partners fronted the venture.
The company took flight in November of 1986 and, within months, was on the financial ropes. Then the day came that could have killed the company. They were late on paying the leasing company and a seizure order had been issued.
Danny got word of the order, which couldn’t be enforced until the Sheriff could attach a decal to the aircraft. Danny, radioed the pilot who was enroute from Victoria to Vancouver: “Don’t land until I tell you.” He quickly got a judge to overrule the order.
The aircraft landed and the company survived to see another day. On that day, his partners and board called him in and told, “Either double the fares or shut it down.” Danny considered both options to be the deathnail of the company.
He doubled the prices and expected to see reservations plummet. They didn’t. Instead, they doubled, tripled, quadrupled, and kept growing. Danny later learned that passengers thought the low fares were the sign of an unsafe company. The higher fares represented a professional organization and assured passengers they would be safe.
Next came a move into air ambulance services and charter flights to and from coastal fishing lodges. The company survived and, forty years later, is thriving.
Over the years, Helijet has supported many charitable organizations and in 2021, along with son Owen, launched Helicopters Without Borders to service remote and rural indigenous communities in British Columbia with medical services.
Danny also donated a helicopter to serve as an air ambulance in Ukraine and Helijet is a supporter of Conversations Live.