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Mark Chapman Sworn: 30-Year Pilot and Mariner

Day 3 · 5:54:43 · Shawn Buckley · Dean Allison · Mark Chapman

  • ✈️ Mark Chapman, 66, is sworn; 30-year military and civilian pilot (Sea King, air ambulance, offshore S-92) and master mariner.
  • 📋 He held airline-transport, commercial and marine licences with 47 years of documented perfect health and cardiac clearances.
  • 🏃 Pre-vaccine he ran 12-15 km several times weekly in freezing temperatures and had no explanatory pre-existing conditions.

Introduction of highly fit multi-licence aviator and mariner.

← Q&A: Male Reproductive Effects and Political Money | Chapman: Cardiac Collapse After Third Pfizer Dose →

Transcript

Shawn Buckley · 5:54:43

So our next witness is Mark Chapman. Mark, will you take the Bible in your right hand? Mark Chapman, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

Dean Allison · 5:54:58

Yes, I do.

Shawn Buckley · 5:55:01

I'd just like to introduce you to the inquiry, although I did learn, uh, just because you were sending emails to me and I'm overwhelmed with them right now, that you were in the military also.

Mark Chapman · 5:55:11

Yes, sir, 30 years.

Shawn Buckley · 5:55:13

30 Years. And I assume that was as a helicopter pilot?

Mark Chapman · 5:55:16

Pretty much.

Shawn Buckley · 5:55:17

But okay, so we'll get to that in a second. Well, let's get to it right now. So tell us about that. I apparently— you did search and rescue Labradors?

Mark Chapman · 5:55:25

Uh, no, I didn't fly the Labradors. Flying was really my main activity, and I actually soloed my first airplane at 15 years old. I had a pilot's license before I had a driver's license for a car. I joined the Air Force right out of high school. I ended up flying the Sea King helicopter with the Navy. I flew that aircraft for 25 years. I had 2 sessions in the military. I did 20 years and I got out. For 3 years I flew the Nova Scotia Air Ambulance. I brought the very first case to the roof of the Halifax Infirmary. As the subsequent Gulf Wars were bubbling up, they— I got a phone call and asked me to come back. I said, I can't say sent to do that. Went back in for about another 9 years. I was a reservist for the time I was on the air ambulance. So altogether it's about 30 years time served.

Shawn Buckley · 5:56:18

And, uh, of course, can you speak a little louder and we're gonna move your mic closer to you?

Dean Allison · 5:56:22

Of course.

Mark Chapman · 5:56:22

I, uh, deployed often, uh, including the Middle East and all the adventures that were going on over there. Uh, eventually, uh, time came to move on to something else. Turned out to be flying again, and I was hired to fly heavy helicopters in the offshore oil and gas industry. And for a period of time, I was flying the longest offshore flight on Earth, from St. John's to the Flemish Cap. Out and back is about 30% of the way to Europe. Used to brief the passengers that we're going 300 miles out. The space station's only 235 miles themselves.

Shawn Buckley · 5:57:01

So that was kind of to put that in perspective, right, for them, to make them feel more comfortable.

Dean Allison · 5:57:06

Right.

Shawn Buckley · 5:57:06

There's no landing place out there. So, um, well, first of all, uh, I'd like to thank you for your service.

Mark Chapman · 5:57:13

Thank you very much.

Shawn Buckley · 5:57:14

So, um, you're 66 years old. One of the things that many people won't know is that pilots, they have to get regular physicals, complete physicals and you have 47 years of documented good health before the vaccine, including cardiac health, as an airline transport-rated commercial pilot, master mariner, and commercial vehicle operator, which were all valid licenses at the time of your vaccination.

Mark Chapman · 5:57:46

Absolutely.

Shawn Buckley · 5:57:47

So like, you're a driver of all things.

Mark Chapman · 5:57:50

If it had an engine, I wanted to do it right.

Shawn Buckley · 5:57:53

Okay. And you were also very physically active. Like when we were— I was interviewing you, I appreciate that during COVID you came back from Thailand, but you were telling me as soon as the temperature dropped to like 32, 32, you'd be out there 12, 15K, 4 or 5 times a week. Like, and the point I'm just trying to make is you were a very active person. You didn't, you, you didn't have pre-existing medical conditions to explain any of this. Um, and then also, um, perhaps David, did you get the, the, um, the Air Force photos too? So let's, let's just walk through some photos of how you were. So now I appreciate this one's, you know, more than a year ago. Yeah. So, um, tell us about this though. This is a beautiful photograph.

Mark Chapman · 5:58:43

This would be, uh, during my second, uh, stint with the Air Force. While I was in a staff and flying positions. And about that time, I was the senior air officer in the Atlantic Fleet.

Shawn Buckley · 5:58:57

I— if we were having a different inquiry, I'm sure you'd have some super stories about going out in storms and Sea Kings.

Mark Chapman · 5:59:04

Absolutely.

Shawn Buckley · 5:59:04

Um, but we can't do that today, so can we go to the next? Tell us about this. This is in Thailand.

Mark Chapman · 5:59:11

That'd be in 2020 in Thailand.

Shawn Buckley · 5:59:13

So 2020, this is important because you look pretty happy and you look pretty healthy here, right?

Mark Chapman · 5:59:18

Now, I, I'd gone back to Thailand. I was working in Thailand as my last company I worked for, and, uh, I went over in early March, and then Thailand closed the airspace to the country for 10 months. I didn't leave Thailand for 10 months. This is about in the middle of that period. Uh, this photograph here, uh, my buddy Banshert next to me here had just had his birthday, so our two ages added together meant this was the last day we could fly together because that's how the company controlled the age of pilots that were in the aircraft. Their ages combined had a maximum number it could be, so we were sort of celebrating our last opportunity. So everything was good, and at the end of 2020, I came home.

Shawn Buckley · 6:00:04

Uh, we'll just move— we'll just move through a couple of photographs just so people can— so this is during COVID right?

Mark Chapman · 6:00:10

Yes, this is during COVID You, you, you followed the mask mandate here? You betcha. And, uh, so flying out to the platforms, you had to be masked up in one method. Okay, method or other, right?

Shawn Buckley · 6:00:23

So flying to resupply oil rigs with people out in the— okay, so it's because there's people in there.

Mark Chapman · 6:00:30

There are 19 people in the back.

Shawn Buckley · 6:00:31

Yeah. Oh my gosh. Okay.

Mark Chapman · 6:00:34

So this was, this was the protocol, and if you didn't do that, you had to wear 2 or 3 cloth and paper masks. But that, that one worked pretty well.

Shawn Buckley · 6:00:45

So next photograph, David.

Mark Chapman · 6:00:48

And when I wasn't working in aviation, which is a touring business— you do, I do 6 weeks away and 6 weeks off— I did this. I was the skipper of the Harbor Hopper in Halifax. There are only about 6 people in the world could do that job because you needed a 60-ton master mariner ship captain license and a bus driver over 24-passenger license to operate that machine, which is amphibious. It weighs 10 tons and it's wider than a traffic lane. And we do a half an hour in the city and half an hour in the harbor. So if it floated or flew, or, or drove. I was licensed to do air, land, and sea.

Shawn Buckley · 6:01:31

That's really quite spectacular. So, and I think that's our last photo, isn't it? Okay, let's keep going.

Mark Chapman · 6:01:39

That's now, you see, I'm sitting on a walker, and that's, that's the clan.

Shawn Buckley · 6:01:50

Okay.