The community of Picture Butte is mourning the loss of Jurrie and Mike Van Den Berg tonight, after their plane crashed in B.C. Saturday afternoon.
“It’s such an incredible shock to the community,” said family friend John Vander Heyden. “Jurrie was a very, very community-oriented fellow.”
A tight-knit town banding together for support, as they grieve the loss of two of their own.
“The community, we’re going to miss him,”said long time friend, Ken Van Reey. “If you needed something done and it was a challenge, that was where he really stepped in.”
51-year-old Jurrie Van Den Berg and his 25-year-old son Mike, the pilot, were on route to Tofino, off the West Coast of Vancouver Island, when their plane vanished from radar Saturday afternoon.
“A crew from the Comox rescue center located the crash site at about 9:30 this morning,” said Darren Lagan on Sunday, who is with the Vancouver Island RCMP. “It was a Cessna twin engine plane that was found crashed with two souls on board. Sadly, both occupants on the plane were found deceased at the scene.”
News of their disappearance began circulating the community Sunday morning. By the afternoon, word had begun to spread that Jurrie and Mike would not be coming home for the holidays.
“They treated everybody equal, no matter who you were,” said Van Reey. “That’s what I’ll remember.”
Residents in the small town say the streets were unusually quiet Monday, many shocked upon hearing news of the tragedy.
“Losses such as this will touch the lives of most of us in our small town, and the loss of these two upstanding men will be felt by many of us individually and certainly by the community as a whole,” said Picture Butte Mayor Wendy Jones.
Now, the town is left with fewer helping hands, as both men were known to step up anytime someone was in need.
“Mike was a chip off the old block,” said Vander Heyden. “He was the same as his dad. If somebody asked for help, it didn’t matter what it was, Mike was there.”
“I’m just going to miss him. He was part of the fabric of Picture Butte,” added Van Reey.
The cause of the crash is still under investigation.
A memorial will be held for the pair at the family’s business, Porcupine Corral Cleaning, on Saturday afternoon.
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