CH-149 Cormorant helicopter.
Image Credit: Contributed/19 Wing Comox
November 26, 2017 - 4:08 PM
PENTICTON – A search is underway in the Rocky Mountains for a single-engine aircraft that went missing yesterday afternoon on a flight from Penticton to Edmonton.
The Mooney aircraft left the Penticton Airport at approximately 2:30 p.m. yesterday, Nov. 25, for Edmonton with two people on board, according to a spokesperson with the Canadian Coast Guard Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Victoria.
Katelyn Moores says the plane was reported overdue at around 10:40 p.m. and a search was launched.
She says the pilot’s cellphone was pinged by a cell tower about 20 miles northeast of Revelstoke so the search is concentrating on that area and up into Rogers Pass.
Overnight and into this morning, a Hercules aircraft did an electronic search but nothing was found, she says, and all airports along the route have been checked.
Weather conditions in the search area have deteriorated today.
“There was a very low ceiling and it prevented a Cormorant helicopter and a Buffalo aircraft from entering the area,” Moores says.
Three aircraft from the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association out of Kamloops were also ready to join in the search today, but the poor flying weather kept them on the ground.
Moores says two Parks Canada helicopters and a chartered helicopter from Arrow Helicopters out of Revelstoke were on the scene helping with the search today.
The identities of the pilot and passenger have not been released.
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