The man who oversaw the original search for a missing plane that disappeared while travelling from Lethbridge, Alta., to Kamloops, B.C. says those efforts included an area that will be the focus of a private search effort later this month.
The piper aircraft left Lethbridge on June 8, 2017. It had stopped to re-fuel in Cranbrook, B.C. but vanished after taking off for its final leg of the flight.
The plane was carrying pilot Alex Simons and passenger Sydney Robillard.
On Tuesday, family told Global News they received a tip from a pilot north of Kimberley, B.C. who saw a plane fly over that same day, shortly after Simons would have taken off from Cranbrook.
The family is now planning a private search of the Lost Dog Lake area from May 8 to 10.
Based on weather conditions on the day the plane went missing, the man who lead the initial search believes Simons would have flown that route.
“Over the course of the entire search, we hit that area at three different altitudes, three different directions with multiple airplanes,” said Lt.-Col. Bryn Elliott, the commanding officer of the Royal Canadian Air Force’s 442 Transport and Rescue Squadron.
Elliott said those efforts included eight helicopters, several fixed-wing aircraft and 20 civilian planes.
He said a satellite also passed over the search area in 2017 to detect metal but nothing was found.
Elliott says the RCAF is willing to forward any information from the initial search to the private one later this month, and offer suggestions as to the best location for a private search to take place.
The plane’s emergency beacon was never activated and without corroborating evidence as to a possible location, Elliott believes a private search will be challenging.
“This is a small aircraft, white, maybe it got covered with snow. In that area they’re looking, the Lost Dog Lake, it wasn’t up high enough perhaps to get snow, but then again, it is heavily wooded and a small plane like that can get hidden in the woods,” Elliott said.
Relatives of Alex Simons and Sydney Robillard are seeking the help of pilots, drone pilots and ATV resources to conduct the private search.