WATCH: Two small planes somehow collided in the air near Fort McMurray, Alberta. Investigators are speaking with the sole survivor — the pilot of one of the planes. He endured not just the collision but a terrifying attempt to crash land his damaged aircraft. Reid Fiest has the story.
EDMONTON — A company in Fort McMurray, Alta., has confirmed the identities of two people killed in a collision between two small planes near the northern Alberta community earlier this week.
McMurray Aviation posted a news release on social media identifying the deceased as flight instructor Nabeel Chaudhry and student Amjed Ahmed.
RCMP on Wednesday said a 33-year-old man from Edmonton and a 32-year-old Fort McMurray man were killed in the crash, but cited a privacy act as the reason for not naming the men.
By Wednesday afternoon both of the victim’s bodies had been recovered from the remote crash site. A large search team, including both RCMP and civilian helicopters in the air, and police, search and rescue and canine units on the ground, were involved in the search.
The men were in a Cessna 172 that collided mid-air with a Cessna 185 east of Fort McMurray Sunday night. Emergency services were alerted to the crash just after 8 p.m.
The Cessna 185 was forced to make a hard landing without one of its floats back at the Fort McMurray Airport. The pilot, who was alone in the aircraft, was not injured.
“He approached and landed with the damaged float and stopped fairly quickly obviously, and while the aircraft is broken up somewhat, he was unhurt,” said Fort McMurray Airport Authority President and CEO Scott Clements.
A local search and rescue chopper found the Cessna 172, which crashed in an isolated area about 21 nautical miles northeast of the airport.
Police arrived at the crash site and confirmed the two people in the plane had died.
“It is a difficult time for everyone around and I know, thank goodness, that incidents like this don’t happen on a regular basis,” said Cpl. George Cameron with Wood Buffalo RCMP. “But when they do, you know the community does try to come together and try to get some answers out of this, and hopefully to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen in the future.”
McMurray Aviation said both aircrafts were allowed to be in the same air space, but further details won’t be released until the Transportation Safety Board concludes its investigation.
The Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation. RCMP have not released any further information.
With files from The Canadian Press.
*Editor’s note: This story was originally published on Monday, June 22, 2015. It has been updated several times, most recently at 2:40 p.m. Wednesday.
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