Elon Musk flew in and out of a small village airport on B.C.'s Central Coast last weekend.
Sean Carter runs an airport shuttle business and happened to be at the Bella Bella airport on Saturday afternoon, Aug. 16, when a "fancy" private jet landed there, followed by a helicopter.
"We get the odd private jet coming through here, so it did not arouse too much attention from me at first. I have worked at the airport in the past, too," he told Black Press Media.
But then Carter heard some of the workers behind the counter talking to each other when he heard someone say, "Is that him?"
"Someone said, 'I think so,' so I asked, 'Who is it?' and they said, 'Elon Musk,' and I said, 'No way'."
A woman managed to get a photograph of Musk, and when Carter and the others looked at it, they realized it was him.
"He got off that private jet when it landed and got onto the helicopter, and it took off pretty quickly."
Carter said they all started speculating about why Musk might be in the area. Carter, himself, has lived there for almost nine years and knows who owns places in the area.
"I know James Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch's son, has this - they call it his Apocalypse Retreat out in Nascall Bay. So that was my initial thought."
He went home, did some research and found that James Murdoch is on the Tesla board of directors and figured Musk and Murdoch have that connection.
Murdoch's retreat is a 15-minute helicopter flight at most or two hours by boat, Carter noted, adding he is 98 per cent sure that's where Musk went.
"In my opinion, that was where he went. There were rumours going around that he went to Ocean Falls, but I have a property there and have a lot of friends there, and I talked to all my friends, and they said 'no, there was no helicopter there.' Living there, you are not going to sneak a helicopter in there - it's going to echo across the whole area."
Carter guesses that the pilots could not disclose where they could have hinted that they were heading toward Ocean Falls, and that was the direction they headed.
"That kind of turned into 'we are going to Ocean Falls.' There's a bitcoin mine there, but I think that's probably small potatoes compared to what Elon Musk is doing. The mine is probably a millionaire's thing, and Elon Musk is a billionaire."
There were two pilots on the helicopter, and after dropping Musk off, they returned to the airport, and one of them got on the plane, which flew away.
After snapping a photograph of the plane's tail number, Carter once again did some research and found out it was a charter plane from Texas.
From this, Carter summarized when the charter plane might return to pick up the Tesla CEO. Carter and about eight people who had heard a rumour the plane would be back on Monday afternoon, Aug. 18, made sure to arrive at the airport for a chance to steal a glance at the wealthiest person in the world.
"Sure enough, when the helicopter came back, he was on board," Carter said.
When they landed on Saturday, it was a busy day at the airport with fishing lodge changeovers, so the helicopter had to land a decent amount away from the plane that Musk had to walk, and that's why people saw him initially.
That did not happen on Monday because they were able to land the helicopter much closer to the plane and use the plane to shield the view.
"But there were people inside who were able to get some shots of him," Carter said.
Like many small towns, Bella Bella has its rumours, so on the weekend, there were many people who did not believe Musk was in the area, he added.
"Those of us who kind of knew we were going to return and try and see him again were saying, 'let's keep it a little hush hush.'"
There was a mixed reaction to Musk being around, he added.
"At the end of the day, I'm not an Elon Musk fan, nor do I dislike him, I'm kind of neutral. But it's super interesting. I live in a very small village, so to see him up there is still a big thing."
