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31-07-2023
OTTAWA/ CANMORE: Six people have died after a small plane crashed in Kananaskis Country, a mountainous region west of Calgary, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said on Saturday.
The RCMP said an aircraft with five passengers and a pilot left Springbank Airport near Calgary on Friday night en route to Salmon Arm, British Columbia.
RCMP Staff Sgt. Ryan Singleton said contact was lost with the plane around 9:30 p.m. local time (0330 GMT Saturday). Shortly after the plane was reported overdue, a search was conducted by a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) squadron based in Winnipeg.
The squadron found the crash site, and with help from Alberta Parks Mountain Rescue, searched for survivors. However, all six people in the plane had died, Singleton said.
The RCMP did not release the names of the victims.
“Recovering the bodies of the pilot and the passengers was very challenging due to the difficult terrain. However, all six bodies have been successfully recovered,” Singleton said, adding the Transport Safety Board of Canada is conducting an investigation into the crash.
Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru; Editing by Lincoln Feast.
“On behalf of the Alberta RCMP, I would like to extend my deepest condolences to the families of those onboard the aircraft,” Singleton told reporters.
Mike Koppang, a mountain rescue specialist with Kananaskis Country, said “crews were on the scene for most of Saturday morning and the early hours of the afternoon,” adding that “unfortunately, it wasn’t the outcome we would have liked to see.”
Koppang said that weather conditions in the area were cloudy on Friday night, with low-lying clouds in the Kananaskis region.
“We’re still trying to figure out exactly what we saw for weather last night,” Koppang said.
The investigation has been started by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, which said, involved a Piper PA32 aircraft. (Int’l News Desk)
