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Plane crash that killed Okanagan man was human error

VERNON — A report into a central Alberta plane crash that killed two BC brothers, one from the Okanagan, says pilot error was the cause of the tragic incident.

Dean Sorken, 44, of Abbotsford and Lee Sorken, 39, of Vernon died when their small, single-engine plane went down near Bashaw in June 2011.

An investigator with the Transportation Safety Board testified at the inquiry that nothing was mechanically wrong with the plane.

The inquiry heard Dean Sorken was at the controls in cloudy weather, even though his licence only allowed him to fly when he could see the ground and horizon, and he was probably in a rush to get to a family wedding in Killam, Alberta.

Judge James Hunter says the pilot probably became disoriented in the clouds and couldn’t correct when the plane went into an uncontrolled dive.

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