Plane carrying 4 missing in BC (08/2010)

[Ralliart]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columb ... plane.html

A search is underway in B.C. for a small plane carrying four people that went missing en route from Penticton to Victoria on Tuesday night.

More to come

[iflyforpie]

Oh crap.

I wonder if the haze had anything to do with it?

Hoping for the best...

[Ogee]

It's C-FLQS, registered to a Kelowna based company.

[cv990]

Not sure if the haze had anything to do with it or not.... but it is a valid question. Flying up and down the province over the last few days, and I can't remember seeing as much smoke coverage over as much an area (vertically as well) as is happening at the moment. Gosh we need some rain, if only to just clear the air a little bit.

[robbreid]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/nat ... le1677398/

Search and rescue crews are scouring B.C.'s rugged southern Interior for four men aboard a plane that vanished out of the sky between Penticton and Victoria.

Search crews had no sign of the men or the single-engine plane late Wednesday and were ready on Thursday to add more planes to the search, which is focused on a 120-kilometre stretch of mountainous terrain between Penticton and Princeton.

This section of the flight is especially challenging, according to Captain Quentin Wyne of the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre. Most pilots encounter trouble early in the trip, he said.

“When you depart Princeton you have to ascend a rise to what is effectively a plateau. … It's always a bit of a challenge to ascend to the right altitude and its rugged terrain.”

The privately owned Piper PA24 left Penticton's airport at approximately 5 p.m. Tuesday and was reported missing four hours later. The pilot set a flight plan for a direct route that would have seen the plane arrive in Victoria at about 7:30 p.m., but the aircraft didn't appear on radar in the Vancouver area as expected prompting the search.

The pilot would have normally called in on the way to Princeton, but did not, according to Capt. Wyne's colleague, Major James Perotti.

The Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre would not release the names of the men aboard the plane, but did say they were all under 40 years old and from British Columbia, with the majority from the Kelowna area.

A Piper PA24, with call numbers CFLQS, operates out of the Kelowna area and is registered to a numbered company owned by Rama Tello.

Judy Keyser, the mother of Mr. Tello's former business partner, confirmed that the missing plane did belong Mr. Tello and that he is among the missing.

“He's a nice guy, a really nice guy,” she said.

A Buffalo search and rescue plane along with two helicopters have been searching for the missing men since Tuesday. Two planes from the Civil Air Search and Rescue team, a volunteer group that spends its own time looking for lost aircraft, are also assisting the search.

Rescuers are looking for the plane's emergency transmitter and are keeping their eyes peeled for any forest fires possibly sparked by a crash, said Major Perotti.

The Kamloops fire centre has not reported any new forest fires since the plane disappeared.

Despite the heavy smoke from forest fires in other regions of the province, the air in the Okanagan was clear and suitable for flying, according to Capt. Wyne.

“As far as I am aware, the weather is clear and sunny, so it shouldn't have been a factor,” he said.

[bubba070]

http://www2.canada.com/topics/news/nati ... id=3419835

A mysterious reward has sparked a chaotic rush to find a missing plane which is now believed to be linked to British Columbia's drug trade.

Word was circulating Thursday night in Kelowna, B.C., that people connected to the drug trade were offering rewards up to $100,000 to anyone who finds the plane first.

"This has caused all kinds of people in the bush on dirt bikes and ATVs," a police source said. "There are also all kinds of aircraft in the air."

The RCMP have confirmed that someone is circulating an email mentioning a reward of up to $10,000.

The pilot of the missing plane - which vanished between Penticton, B.C., and Victoria with three other passengers on board - had "relatively few hours of flying time," says Capt. Scott Cursley, the man co-ordinating the search.

A YouTube video titled "Rama plane" - set to Tom Petty's tune Learning to Fly - shows what appears to be the missing plane and its pilot flying with friends from Kelowna to Chilliwack, B.C., on an earlier trip.

But search-and-rescue officials said Thursday they could not confirm media reports that the missing plane was piloted by Rama Tello, a Kelowna businessman.

The $10,000 reward-poster email shows the missing plane's tail registration number as CF-LQS. A plane with that number is registered to a numbered company based in Kelowna, which lists Tello as president and Michael Keyser and Mark Scheid as directors.

The poster says the plane "possibly crash-landed between Apex Mountain and Coquihalla Summit" and asked anyone with information to call Penticton RCMP.

Regional RCMP spokesman Cpl. Dan Moskaluk said police are trying to track the source of the poster and the identity of the party offering the reward. Some reports said the prize was offered by a friend who hoped that backcountry enthusiasts, ATV riders and dirt bikers would help in the ground search for the aircraft.

Meanwhile, a local search headquarters has been set up at the airport in Kelowna.

The privately-owned Piper Comanche had left Penticton at 5:10 p.m. Tuesday afternoon and was due to arrive in Victoria at 7:30 p.m. It was reported missing about two hours after its expected arrival time.

"While the pilot had relatively few hours of flying time, he was known for being conscientious and cautious in his approach to flying," said Cursley, searchmaster from 442 Squadron, 19 Wing Comox. "The search continues, and is currently concentrated in the Penticton to Chilliwack area."


The search is being conducted by two CH-149 Cormorant helicopters and two CC-115 Buffalo aircraft from 19 Wing Comox. Seven aircraft and a number of spotters from the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association are helping with the search.

Capt. Quentin Wyne, of the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Victoria said searchers there were not aware of the reward.

"It's news to us," he said. "It's not something we were involved in or consulted about."

[moocow]

CBC report it was the owner's friend who put up the reward of $10K.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columb ... icton.html

[godsrcrazy]

Anyone know anything more about this. Has the plane been found.

[Ogee]

Not yet, as far as I know.

Hopefully, the families have gone to lawyers over the despicable journalism by Fabian Dawson in the Province about the flight being "...linked to drugs". Not a shred of proof over that.

This guy's a piece of work. He's being sued now over a story he wrote about that guy who supposedly had his chopper stolen and it was later involved in a bust in the States where some young guy sadly hanged himself. The chopper guy got involved in a sting with the Fifth Estate where they tried to set up a US DEA agent with buddy pretending he wanted to be an informant working against all the big players in BC. The DEA agent retaliates by naming buddy in US court documents as an informant, even though he never was. CBC breaks that story in a major way as naming an informant is the biggest no-no of all in law enforcement. Dawson retaliates by totally manufacturing a story about buddy working for all the alphabet soup gang bangers in the land, and that a five man hit team, complete with spotter and body disposal specialists, are on the way to murder to guy. Which is totally fabricated, but does result in buddy's kids being seized for a day by whoever does that in the government.

And then, the Province, in its comments section, publishes comments calling for buddy to be killed and naming places where he can be found.

Hopefully the lawsuit will be carried out to the end and Dawson ends up living in a cardboard box.

But no, they haven't found the Comanche yet.

[Samson]

Hahaha. What? Who's "buddy"?

[robbreid]

Rama Tello pilot of missing aircraft

Rama Tello.jpg (25.21 KiB) Viewed 5271 times

[RVgrin]

http://www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna/56 ... sing-pilot

[Rotten Apple #1]

I don't think "buddy" is "buddy". (Or did I misread Ogee's post?)

[Ogee]

I don't remember his name. Doesn't matter. Name's not important, buddy will do.

I do know the lawyer who filed the lawsuit. My point is these pricks passing themselves off as journalists make up anything they think will sell another paper to another moron. If "suspected sheep shaggers on board" would sell another paper, or more papers than "linked to drug trade", that's what we'd have gotten.

They are a pathetic lying bunch of sons of bitches. And I don't even know anybody on that Comanche, but when did it come to the point that when you go missing on a plane, some cockroaches can openly print defamation about you?

Huh? I ask you that.

[BGH]

that is the reason I call the Province the provincial enquirer , same research on facts.

Daryl

[moocow]

Now there's too much help.

http://www.news1130.com/news/local/arti ... issing-men

[SAR_YQQ]

This is a real hazard to the search crews. Having another aircraft in the same search area as you will only prove to be a hindrance both to flight safety and to the effectiveness of the search. Add in poor visibility due to smoke and the undulating terrain, you have a recipe for disaster.

I have seen this before on different rescues - if you think rubber necking on the highway is bad, wait until you get a similar minded individual flying in 3-D over your search area.

[Ogee]

I did find out this morning that it's an old 180 horse Comanche, so four guys on board and its going to be not so hot in the climb.

If you draw a direct line from Penticton to Victoria, almost half of the trip is over US airspace, yet there is no search going on in the US. He did have a squawk, not sure if it was for US entry or not, but there never was a return. No clearing the zone call, no mayday. Good weather, may have been convective turbulence at the heat of the day, but you'd think that would have subsided by after 5.

Not sure why they say he was inexperienced. He seems to have had the plane for at least five years, but maybe he wasn't the pilot for some of that time.

[cgartly]

They say inexperienced because I believe he has only had his PPL for a little over a year. I'm pretty sure he was just getting his license at the same time I was finishing mine in Kelowna at SIFC.

As far as I know as well all of his training was done in C172/C152 and he bought the Piper Comanche after. I have no idea how much time he has in the Comanche.

A friend of mine flew from Boundary Bay to Kelowna at the exact same time as the Comanche was flying out of Penticton and was interviewed by CASARA, he said it was quite smokey just west of the okanagan valley that evening although it was still considered VFR. It was pretty clear in the valley. The terrain rises fairly quickly west of Penticton if he got disoriented in smoke he probably didn't have a lot of altitude between him and the ground depending how early he turned westbound.

I had my first experience getting disoriented by smoke flying over Revelstoke 3 weeks ago and the visibility was still 5 miles, but when there isn't much to see for 5 miles there is no horizon to work with. I ended up having to focus more on the instruments and less out the window to keep it straight and level. I could see the ground but could see nothing forward and little sideways for about 5 minutes. Fortunately I knew I was high enough to clear any obstacles at 9500' and was in very familiar territory. I probably would not fly again in those conditions. It was on occasion where I was happier to be back on the ground instead of in the air.

[iflyforpie]

I did find out this morning that it's an old 180 horse Comanche, so four guys on board and its going to be not so hot in the climb.

If you draw a direct line from Penticton to Victoria, almost half of the trip is over US airspace, yet there is no search going on in the US. He did have a squawk, not sure if it was for US entry or not, but there never was a return. No clearing the zone call, no mayday. Good weather, may have been convective turbulence at the heat of the day, but you'd think that would have subsided by after 5.

Not sure why they say he was inexperienced. He seems to have had the plane for at least five years, but maybe he wasn't the pilot for some of that time.

A 180 Commanche would have been an absolute dog with that load in those conditions. Convective turbulence would have been a good thing if you know how to use it, but hot stagnant air would have offered no performance and still robbed the aircraft of power.

Having flown many hours out of Penticton, it is easy to get caught doing direct east or westbound departures. The mountains are fairly low and the terrain takes a fair time to rise to the Thompson and Okanagan plateaus. But unless you climb out to Summerland/Naramata to the north or OK Falls to the south, you will not clear the terrain and get sucked down into one of the narrow, yet slowly climbing and shallow valleys. If you aren't johnny-on-the-spot with the turn around, you have no choice but to press ahead until you run out of air, airspeed, and options. Lots of planes have been eaten on good days east and west of Penticton by this very cause. Haze and a western sun would have made for poor visibility and tough decision making for even experienced pilots.

In Kelowna--the pilot's home base, the plateau looms obviously impenetrable to the east, and the Control Zone departures force you to gain altitude by flying north to Oyama where you can either clear terrain or go east up the Lumby Valley, or south or Black Knight mountain where you can pick up Hwy 33. Flying west, unless you are pointed at Hermes Hill or Terrace Mountain, you will easily clear the plateau even turning direct from the airport.

If he didn't call clear, he might have went in within spitting distance of the Penticton Airport.

As for being in the US, unless he had a huge navigational error it is unlikely. Hwy 3 provides a good visual barrier to keep you going too far south, and the Cathedrals and Cascade mountains rise quite sharply to the south of the track. The flight path would take you to Vancouver Terminal Airspace where they would then send you south to Victoria Terminal, only crossing into the States past Cultus Lake...

[franki]

Some very interesting theory's for sure.

I truly pray for these fellows and hope no - one is hurt. That said - I recently also completed a trip to Nanaimo with my piper - from the Okanagan. The VFR procedures are farily complex but really need to be researched and followed quite carefully. Pacific Radio for one is should be notified and provided with On - route - position reports etc... - obviously they never reached Chilliwack or they would have been speaking to Vancovuer Center. In addition did they get a SQUAWK code for the crossing? that is required now for all crossings - 30min prior.

I recall the weather that day I flew to penticton and back on the very next day - yes smoke - but not enought for someone with some decent amount of X country experience to plow into terrain. Overloaded for the heat? that's definetly a possiblity. On the route I took - 8500 feet east bound - no problem clearing terrain - 7500 on my return flight. Not sure what the useful load of the 180HP commanchee would have been - taking into account 30 degree heat! perhaps 900lbs? maybe? how much fuel do they carry? 50gal? that's 300 lbs. plus say 4X 180 ave? 620lbs - perhaps 10lb's of cargo each? another 40lbs? they may of had almost 960lbs in the plane on take off. perhaps close to the limit of this plane.

We also don't know what condition the motor is in - is it developing full power? it could have 2000hours on the motor - lowing the performance even further. I noticed mine would not climb much over 8500 and maintaining that was definetly harder in the heat. to do so I had 80% power. So fully loaded they manage to get airborne at 1100feet in Penticton. having to climb up to at least 8500? this could be one issue that may of happened but still dosn't explain plowing straight into terrain - hello? turn back if you can't clear the terrain?

Something is not right though - personally don't care what they had or did'nt have on the plane - no one would want to have a death wish - by overloading the plane on a HOT day - filing a flight plan and not speaking to Pacific Radio - or providing some postional reports - or even a MAYDAY call had some techicial issues came up that either forced a landing etc... My guess is the plane is not here. It's in the US. that's my guess. why ? don't know - don't care either - but that's where I'd be looking.

EDITED for readability

[Ogee]

Franki,

First off, look to the right side of your keyboard, same row and just to the right of the " thingy. It's called the return or enter button. It creates things called paragraphs.

Secondly, if you are saying that these people went to the States on some unknown mission, you must be talking about pot. No? Think about it. Why would you take four people to do that. Each of them would have a joint in their pocket?

Right now, these are four people who are missing in an airplane. There is enough info to make it a reasonable conclusion that this airplane has had an accident and that the occupants are probably dead. It's likely they were taking the pilot's brother to school in Victoria and two guys jumped in for the ride.

Pretty garden variety stuff. No need to be Matlock, is there?

[Rotten Apple #1]

Two Buffalo aircraft and a Cormorant helicopter just departed Kelowna in the last half hour heading south. Fingers crossed they find the aircraft today. Wx is clear.

[Beaver2509]

Just heard they have reportedly found the plane near Manning Park B.C.

[Ogee]

Sun breaking news says Apex.

No survivors.