Image Credit: (Transportation Safety Board)
August 12, 2013 - 2:16 PM
KAMLOOPS - Investigators have returned from the accident scene where 16-year-old student pilot Lorne Perreault was found dead last week in a plane crash just outside Kamloops.
Perreault was flying alone on a training exercise on the morning of Aug. 6 and he didn't return as expected to the Kamloops Airport. He was found dead along with the plane late the next day by search personnel, much further from where he was expected. He was training to achieve his pilot's license through TylAir Aviation in Kamloops.
Bill Yearwood, regional manager for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, said preliminary analysis reveals that the Cessna 172 plane Perreault was flying hit the hills near Cache Creek, just west of Kamloops, at high speed and a steep angle.
"(That) is consistent with loss of control," Yearwood said. "The investigation has to try and determine why that was."
The aircraft did not catch fire, but photos released by the board show the damages sustained.
Yearwood said investigators will return to Kamloops once the wreckage is moved to try and determine what happened that lead to the tragic teenage death. The board will investigate the aircraft, the training facility, potential human factors and the environment.
"We'll be back there later this week," he said.
To contact a reporter for this story, email: jwallace@infotelnews.ca, call: (250) 319-7494 or tweet: @jess__wallace.
News from © iNFOnews, 2013