As the search continues for two people flying through B.C.’s interior, authorities have confirmed the private plane flew out of Parkland Airport, west of Edmonton.
Airport President Robert Gilgen said the plane left Parkland Friday morning, and that this was not the first time the pilot had taken the route from Parkland to Chilliwack.
According to Gilgen, the weather was good at the time the plane left—though he couldn’t say what the conditions would have been like in the mountains.
The plane is a white Vans RV-6, a single-engine two seater.
Lt. Navy Tony Wright, public communications officer for the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre, said another CH-149 helicopter out of Comox had joined the search efforts.
That brings the total number of aircraft looking for the missing plane to 10: two helicopters and a fixed-wing CH-115 Buffalo provided by the Royal Canadian Air Force, and seven volunteer-run craft by the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association.
“We are searching a corridor along Highway 5 from Chilliwack to Valemount, but the focus is going to be from Clearwater to Valemount and that is based some cell tower information and some air traffic control information that we have,” Wright said.
The plane was first reported overdue Friday at 2 p.m.
The identities of the pilot and passenger have not been released.
Wright said the search teams would continue their efforts as long as it was safe to do so, and as long as they believed those missing could still be alive.
“Based on the experience of search and rescue community, they’re going to continue rescue as long as they believe the possibility of survivability.”
