Hikers should be experienced and prepared for a rugged hike to find the remains of a plane that went down on Okanagan Mountain in 1950.
Image Credit: Penticton Museum and Archives PMAO123
April 24, 2019 - 5:30 PM
A plane crash that took place in Okanagan Mountain Park more than half a century ago offers a destination for hikers interested in off-trail excursions on the mountain.
You're probably interested in the hike, but this story is worth reading. Canadian Pacific Airlines DC-3 flight 4 bound for Penticton out of Vancouver flew into some clouds while on final approach to Penticton and crashed into Okanagan Mountain on Dec. 22, 1950. As you can imagine, it made for an amazing Christmas story.
Fifteen passengers and one of three crew members survived the impact and waited, stranded on the mountain for 28 hours before a ground-based rescue crew found the crash site.
Josh Hoggan, from Hiking Addiction, informed INFOnews.ca today, April 25, he hiked to the site this morning. He provided a new set of GPS coordinates, saying the original coordinates provided in this story failed to take him to the site.
Hoggan's GPS coordinates to the site of the remains of the main portion of the fuselage are as follows:
In decimal degrees notation:
N 49.725766,W -119.586513
His account and photos of his hike can be viewed on his hiking addiction Kelowna Facebook page later today.
Accounts indicate at the main site an engine, a wing section, a propellor and some other debris remains.
The hike takes around an hour of strenuous bushwhacking to get to each site.
Getting to the site involves taking Divide Lake Road to the first right hand corner past the seven kilometre marker. Hikers then head southeast while following their GPS coordinates.
Be prepared for an hour and a half hike through downed trees with lots of new growth and active wildlife. There is no discernible trail to the site.
Good luck! And if you find the site, or the tail section of the plane which is reputedly in another location, be sure to drop us a note and perhaps a picture at news@infonews.ca.
Kelowna hiker Josh Hoggan took this photo of aircraft wreckage on Okanagan Mountain on April 25, 2019.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Josh Hoggan
A photo of one of the downed DC-3s engines on Okanagan Mountain.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Josh Hoggan
- This story was updated to provide new information, including GPS coordinates of the location of the plane's wreckage, provided by a hiker who visited the site on April 25, 2019.
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