One dead in plane crash on Vancouver Island
Credit to Author: David Carrigg| Date: Mon, 23 Dec 2019 01:44:56 +0000
Officials say one person has died after a plane crashed on Vancouver Island over the weekend.
A spokesman for the B.C. Coroners Service says his agency is investigating to figure out who died and how.
The crashed plane was found on Vancouver Island, near Stewardson Inlet, a day after going missing.
Maj. Sandra Bourne, spokesperson for the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Pacific Region, said the plane was inbound for Tofino and was expected to arrive on Saturday afternoon.
Bourne said the plane was not located by sundown on Saturday and that four planes were dispatched at first light Sunday morning. The crashed plane had an active beacon and it was located near Stewardson Inlet, north of the Hot Springs Cove on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
The RCMP, in a statement released Sunday, said rescue crews located wreckage 10 kilometres northwest of Tofino near Sydney Inlet Provincial Park. The aircraft was scheduled to land at Courtenay Airpark Saturday afternoon but never arrived.
The JRCC dispatched two planes, while the Canadian Coast Guard dispatched two.
Comox Valley RCMP contacted the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Saturday after the small plane was reported overdue at its destination in Courtenay.
The RCMP, in its statement, said RCMP have not yet been able to attend the scene because of the geographic remoteness of the crash site.
This is the second plane crash on or near Vancouver Island in the past 12 days.
On Dec. 10, three people died after a Piper twin-engined plane went down on the north end of Gabriola Island, off Nanaimo.
With files from The Canadian Press