GRANDE PRAIRIE (CP) - Snow and ice fog Tuesday hampered the search for a light aircraft missing since Thursday with five residents of the Fox Creek area aboard. Capt. Ed Visheck of the Canadian Forces search and rescue unit in Grande Prairie said good weather on the west side of the mountains allowed four Twin Otter aircraft, a helicopter and a C-130 armed forces plane from Edmonton to continue the seardh. So far, searchers have covered 992,930 square kilometres and flown 469 hours in military and civilian aircraft. Some private planes that joined the search for the five missing truckers Monday were flown by rodeo cowboys, led by Canadian bareback bronc riding champion Dale Trottier. Trottier is a brother of the plane's pilot, Darryl Trottier, and passenger Brian Trottier. The other passengers on the missing aircraft were Rick Gascon, Larry Anderson and George Maurer. The search was narrowed Monday night to a direct route from Fox Creek, 230 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, to Prince George, B.C., after the discovery of a taped radio message made by Darryl Trottier shortly after takeoff from Grande Pairie airport. The transmission, received 48 minutes after Trot-tier's Cessna 185 left the ground at 7 a.m., reported the plane was flying 3,000 metres above Smoky Tower, along the direct route between the two centres. The tape was discovered Monday morning after search and rescue organizers asked radio stations monitoring air waves along the plane's route to review tapes of radio transmissions made Thursday. Capt. Allan Benell, a search and rescue spokesman, said 17 calls of sightings had been received from people in the area since the search began. All the reports were investigated but turned up nothing. The search will continue until all avenues have been investigated, Benell said. "We'll continue until we are satisfied he is either not in the area or cannot be seen from the air. We never cancel a search; we never just cut it off completely." When the search is exhausted, officials will call for a reduced search status, advising any aircraft flying over the area to keep their "eyes open" for the craft, Benell said. Military exercises also will be held in the area in the hope of spotting the missing plane.
April 29 1982:
Departed Grande Prairie at 7am and tracked 90NM SE (a very strong tail component possible here) to Fox Creek Airport to pick up some passengers and then reported approx 50NM West at 3000M over Smoky Tower Airport in "48 minutes".
From Smoky Tower is 210NM left to go ("straight" from Fox Creek to Prince George).
No. About ten years ago a prospector stumbled across the wreckage of an orange and white Cessna and they thought that was it. The family went up to Tumbler Ridge expecting to finally find closure but it turned out to be another plane that crashed in the sixties. The mystery remains.
I'm not following this. There is no way he departed Grand Prairie to Fox Creek and was over Smoky tower en route to Prince George 48 minutes later. Thats 140 miles, meaning he needs to average 175 kts, before accounting for time to stop and load passengers.
If the article meant to say he called 48 minutes after departing Fox Creek, over Smoky tower, that means he had averaged 63 kts so far, which is on the other end of believability but possible if he spent a lot of time climbing (Would have to be near gross to have 5 people and fuel to reach PG) to 9000 feet and was fighting a solid headwind.
Also, your numbers are wrong pdw, 210 miles from Fox Creek to Prince George, only ~160 from Smoky Tower to Prince George.
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Redneck_pilot86 wrote:There is no way he departed Grand Prairie to Fox Creek and was over Smoky tower en route to Prince George 48 minutes later.
Just saying ...
1)Climbout at Grand Prairie is light (2pax only) into tailwind (40kts ? ...at ~ 3-5000AGL) ... around half an hour to Fox Creek actually doesn't look impossible for that morning/aircraft (WX history supports very strong winds from the NW were there/higher).
2)Piling in the ready passengers can be done in record time ... but any back track takes a bit longer.
3)With ~ 7am departure (or 6:50) then reporting Smoky Tower at 48min is just the available math using slightly in-accurate variables ? ( ie; a few miles shy-of / or Smoky Tower in sight when reporting). "3000M" at this location is already quite high (to be that far with any headwind strength) yet if using the shallower / cruise climb out from Fox Creek makes it possible to do in less than half an hour.
(Sorry ...~210 from Smoky Tower to destination, yes ... "in straight line between the two centers" ... Fox Creek and Prince George.)
azimuthaviation wrote:No. About ten years ago a prospector stumbled across the wreckage of an orange and white Cessna and they thought that was it. The family went up to Tumbler Ridge expecting to finally find closure but it turned out to be another plane that crashed in the sixties. The mystery remains.
The reason they thought it was this plane is because it had the same registration. In a VERY strange coincidence, the registration was re-assigned to this aircraft after the first one went missing.
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azimuthaviation wrote:Theres errors in that article, it took off from Fox Creek, not Grande Prairie, and it was Kakwa tower they reported over, not Smoky tower.
Kakwa Airport is also right in line on that same flight path to Prince George, an airfield about 35 nautical miles past Smoky Tower and also on that same line "between", which is already 85 nautical miles enroute due West from Fox Creek; then is ~175 nautical miles remaining on the flight-plan at that position.
Ah, that all makes more sense then.
It does; "48 minutes" is about the time enroute required/expected from Fox Creek to be overhead Kakwa Apt, with the 85 nautical miles including the M.T.O.W. climb to "3000M" in headwind.
Blakey wrote:In a VERY strange coincidence, the registration was re-assigned to this aircraft after the first one went missing.
The selections are in a certain sequence, and when the registration lapsed for that owner it simply went back in to the pot, up for reselection as the lowest available in the sell-off sequence.
Three years before that I was right there with some friends, going to fly out that way in a Maule; I asked for help in the mountain flight-planning West from Edmonton City Centre. The local guys at the FTU talked us out of it saying "we're losing one a week out there right now", so we listened and rented a pick-up camper.
Not surprised if "one a week" was happening, that there would be lots of un-found wrecks after a while, and that (sadly) a new registration eventually picks that one. Wakes you up to think there's that many ...
This accident reminds me of the cp air or air canada plane that hit the mountain in b/c near chilliwack the 1950's wasnt found till the 1988ish if it went in on a glacier then buried it may be several more decades before it gets found. but if has not have been done already would check all the glaciers on a the planes route strait line track +/- 3miles. the mountain wave n turbulence. can be nasty.
Not actually missing for that long. But the wreck, the crew,and all of the pax are still up there.
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Very few peaks in that area are above the treeline, I doubt its under ice. But the canopy can be very thick, very difficult to see from the air. Add to that the fallen foliage that accumulates and quickly conceals anything there. You would be surprised how fast the bush swallows up anything left there.
