Missing plane near Crawford Bay.

[iflyforpie]

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

[sky_flyer]

i hope all come out surviving this event. good luck to all involved

[Widow]

It doesn't sound hopeful, active cell phone but no active ELT.

My thoughts are with those affected.

[BoostedNihilist]

OTher than the airport itself (which is an absolute gem) and the water there aren't a lot of airplane friendly landing spots in that area. Finding it in that area could be a problem as it is very dense. It has been very cold in the area over the past few nights. I hope everything turns out alright

[Ogee]

Saw the Cormorant fly by the house on the way to Castlegar with about three hours of light left this evening. Guessing that the search was over, but no idea of the outcome yet. Most likely is he went the St. Mary's River route and then up through Grey Creek pass. Probably pass and ceiling were about the same height, with a pretty strong wind blowing out of the west.

The cell phone business isn't clear. There is some word he made a call from a cell phone, and another view is that they call his cell phone and it answers through a Telus tower, or not answers, but rings. That would seem to indicate he's on the west side of the range rising out of Kootenay Lake, but who knows.

Always hope for the best.

[SenyorJim]

We had some wicked system change gusts go through here and fresh snow up high [ the west arm ] that he would have met some where along the way , and from what I understand , that bird does not have a lot of power.
Somebody posting on cbc comments was going up to the ground search site thrs pm - said there was a lot of snow and I know its steep country [ worked up crawford creek years ago] so we can only hope for the best at this point.
Jim

[SenyorJim]

they are still searching- the big yellow chopper just went westbound over our place 20 miles east of nelson
saw him eastbound about an hour ago a little n of here
the calgary? dash is going over westerly about 19k
j

SAR still at it 5:02 pacific pm
god bless em

[SenyorJim]

lifted from sleepy c comments:
The Artist formerly known as Ronnie Wristshot wrote:Posted 2009/05/17
at 7:13 PM ETThe only way this man and his plane is likely to be found is by the air and you can only fit so many helicopters and planes into so much area. It has been like a beehive on steroids around here lately. I as much as you would love to have heard they found him alive and well on the first day of the search. The reality however Mary, is that this "poor old boy" flew an old plane on a very windy day into some extremely "challenging" (there we go again) terrane and went down. Planes can slip into the trees here and never be found for years or ever. I don't believe firing people or throwing money around will help much but if you'd like to come join the search I'll put you up for free but be careful out there it's BIG and very challenging.

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The Artist formerly known as Ronnie Wristshot wrote:Posted 2009/05/17
at 7:12 PM ETMaryRedcord

I don't know how old you are are what kind of shape you're in but I do know you have never been on a search in this area or you would not make the statements you do. The young, fit SAR tech's I met here are definitely not "wimps" and damn straight Mary, "the geography is challenging". This is NOT downtown Victoria or half past Saskatchewan mam, this is densely forested steep mountain wilderness. You do not fan out from all the mountain tops 20 meters apart and descend looking for a small white plane unless you have a much bigger army than Canada's. Even then you could easily miss this one. Obviously a bad colour for the deep white snow at the top and a bad size for the increasingly big, closed canopy trees descending to the bottom. I am not a SAR tech but I do know the area well enough to have been able to advise them on the few, summer only four wheel drive roads in the valley. They are accessible now only by snowmobiles and snow cats and believe me there have been lots out looking. Trouble is, the forest is so dense you can only see 10 to 20 meters into the bush from the road. Walking off the road and on the steep hills here in the summer is tough enough. Right now with the deep rotten corn snow it is much more than "challenging" Mary, it's damn near impossible.

[iflyforpie]

Crash location found, 1 dead. My condolences to all who knew the pilot.

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

[SenyorJim]

Not to the strong is the battle,
Not to the swift is the race,
Yet to the true and the faithful
Vict’ry is promised through grace.

my condolences to family and friends




and thanks to the SAR crew and volunteers