The sister of a missing Alberta pilot whose plane vanished after taking off from Penticton Regional Airport en route to Edmonton says the family is praying her brother and his girlfriend will be located safely.
Twenty-eight-year-old Dominic Neron and Ashley Bourgeault, a mother of three, left Penticton at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. They were reported overdue at 10:40 p.m. and a search was launched.
“We are all praying and waiting by the phone for a call with good news,” Tammy Neron said in an email to Global News.
The single-engine aircraft is registered in Neron’s name. He purchased it in September and obtained his pilot’s licence two years ago, according to officials.
The search area has been narrowed to a region about 18 kilometres outside Revelstoke.
“This morning the joint rescue coordination centre in Victoria had tasked a cormorant helicopter out of CFB Comox as well as chartered civilian helicopter to search an area about 10 nautical miles north of Revelstoke,” said public affairs spokesperson John Nethercott on Tuesday.
The Joint Rescue Coordination Centre said the grid was refined based on more complete information from radar and the cellphone tower that picked up a signal from the pilot’s phone.
“The biggest challenge was the weather. Visibility was quite limited, quite restricted, and so we tasked these aircraft but they were very limited in what they could actually see, due to altitude, snow, icing concerns and general visibility,” Nethercott said.
He said the search efforts are expected to continue despite heavy snow.
“The key determinant here is the ability for spotters in the aircraft to actually get good visibility so they can see what is on the ground below them but when you’ve got fog and rain and snow obscuring your vision it makes it that much more difficult for the crews involved.
Nethercott was asked about the likelihood of surviving three days in the frigid wilderness.
“It’s so tough to say and I certainly wouldn’t want to put any type of time limit on it. All I can tell you is we’ve been providing as many air assets as we can. We understand that nobody wants to hear the worst news, so we’ve got a job to do,” he said.
WATCH ABOVE: John Nethercott from the Joint Co-ordination Centre in Victoria explains why the search for the Alberta couple is being hampered by worsening weather conditions.
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