Robert Dziekanski's death at the Vancouver International Airport involved "unprecedented" circumstances and is unlikely to be repeated.
Dwight Stewart, the airport's lawyer, made those submissions Thursday at the Braidwood inquiry - insisting employees on Oct. 14, 2007 did the best they could in a situation they hadn't been trained for.
"[The events] involved a combination of circumstances without precedent. It is improbable such a tragedy will ever occur again," Stewart said.
"Nothing like this had ever before occurred at the airport."
Stewart defended Airport Response Coordinator Bob Ginter, who has been accused of misconduct for not calling YVR's own emergency responders after Dzieknski was Tasered by RCMP.
"Mr. Ginter's decision did not make any difference on the outcome of the situation," Stewart said. "If the YVR ERS was dispatched, they would have arrived around the same time as fire services."
Despite insisting the airport acted appropriately during the hours leading up to and including Dziekanski's death, Stewart said the airport has been committed to "prevent anything like this from happening ever again."
Closing submissions at the Braidwood inquiry resume Tuesday.
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FAMILY SUES
The mother of Robert Dziekanski has filed a lawsuit against the four officers involved in her son's death, the governments of B.C. and Canada, and YVR. No dollar figure was given, but Lawyer Walter Kosteckyj, representing Zofia Cisowski, believes the damages could be in the millions.
