The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) is packing up and heading home to Comox after an unsuccessful search for a missing plane in the B.C.’s Interior.
“We tried our best and it is not the outcome we were looking for,” Lt. Col. Bryn Eliott said. “We have covered the area sufficiently at different altitudes and different angles enough that if we were going to see something we likely would have seen it.”
For nearly two weeks, the RCAF has been coordinating the search from the Kelowna Airport scouring a vast area between Cranbrook and Kamloops looking for two young adults and a single-engine Piper Warrior aircraft that went missing on June 8.
“We had an average of 15 airplanes a day, over 575 flight hours covering an area of over 30,000 square kilometres so it was a very intensive search,” Elliott said.
The plane was being piloted by 21-year-old Alex Simons. The passenger was his girlfriend, Sydney Robillard, also 21.
The flight originated in Lethbridge with the final destination being Kamloops. The pair stopped in Cranbrook to re-fuel and disappeared off the radar shortly after. A thunderstorm rolled through the area that afternoon.
One of the challenges for search crews was the terrain which is very rugged with a lot of snow-covered mountains making spotting a white plane on white snow that much more difficult.
Weather also made some search days tough.
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“Our crews experienced snow, hail as well as turbulence.” Elliott said.
In addition to military aircraft, about a dozen privately-owned planes were also involved in the search.
Elliott said the decision to end the search was not an easy one.
“It is difficult,” Elliott said. “I have been in contact with the families daily and it is a difficult discussion to have. Overall, the families were very appreciative of the effort we put in and I will meet with each of them face to face so they can have any questions answered.”
Simons received his pilot’s licence earlier this year. The pair lived in Lethbridge but had family ties in Kamloops.
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