'No survivors have been located': 3 believed dead in B.C. float plane crash
'No survivors have been located': 3 believed dead in B.C. float plane crash
Three people are believed dead following a float plane crash Wednesday northwest of Port Hardy, B.C.
According to Capt. Chelsea Dubeau, spokesperson for Maritime Forces Pacific, a witness reported the plane crashed into Strachan Bay shortly after takeoff at 12:52 p.m.
The RCMP say two passengers and a pilot were on board when the plane went down.
Mounties were called to the scene at 1:20 p.m. after receiving a notice from the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre that said a Cessna float plane had gone down in the bay.
Dubeau says multiple search assets responded to the incident, including a Cormorant helicopter out of 19 Wing Comox, a Canadian Coast Guard helicopter, a Transport Canada surveillance plane and a coast guard lifeboat out of Port Hardy.
"No survivors have been located and the plane has been presumed to have sunk," Cpl. Alex Bérubé, spokesperson for the B.C. RCMP, said in a release Thursday morning.
"The RCMP and the Transportation Safety Board are both conducting parallel investigations to determine what may have caused the plane to go down."
Dubeau says the coast guard helicopter was the first to arrive on scene and spotted debris and an oil slick, followed by Transport Canada’s surveillance aircraft that assisted with infrared sensors.
"SAR Tecs [search and rescue technicians] were lowered to the lifeboat to assess the scene along with the boat crew and after assessment of the crash site it was determined that further extraction efforts were beyond the capabilities of those on scene and RCMP were advised and took over," Dubeau said Thursday.
The RCMP's marine unit and dive team were en route to the scene Thursday morning.
PLANE BELONGS TO COAL HARBOUR COMPANY
Joel Eilertsen, the owner of the float plane company Air Cab out of Coal Harbour, B.C., confirmed Thursday the aircraft belongs to his company.
He said he has had ongoing concerns about two weather stations that companies like his rely on that have been out of service for some time.
"Sartine Island has been out for two and a half years and Herbert Island, which is extremely critical, has been out for just about a month," Eilertsen said.
"All we had was the airport conditions to fly on and winds were between 15 and 20 knots."
The Air Cab owner says he has spoken at length with Transport Canada to try to get some movement on the problem.
The company said the passengers who were on board the aircraft worked for Mill & Timber Products, a private forestry company.
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact the Port Hardy RCMP at 250-949-6335.
Strachan Bay is approximately 50 kilometres north of Port Hardy.
Convicted murderer Daniel Jolivet, in prison for the past 30 years, has maintained his innocence since the day he was arrested. W5 reviews the evidence he painstakingly assembled while behind bars. W5's documentary 'Buried Evidence' airs Saturday at 7 p.m. on CTV.
The massive white orb drifting across U.S. airspace has triggered a diplomatic maelstrom and is blowing up on social media. A look at what's known about the balloon crossing the U.S. and what isn't.
In the field of cancer treatment, nothing is more important than diagnosing and treating the problem as quickly as possible — but according to new survey data, about one in four Canadian cancer patients report that they are still experiencing cancelled or postponed appointments.
The oldest preserved vertebrate brain has been found in a 319-million-year-old fossilized fish skull that was removed from an English coal mine over a century ago.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has said the supply of more advanced U.S. weaponry to Ukraine will only trigger more retaliatory strikes from Russia, up to the extent of Russia's nuclear doctrine.
The suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that was found floating over sensitive military sites in the western United States had been tracked by Canada's government since last weekend as it passed through Canadian airspace, sources tell CTV News.
It took 40 years, but former NHL player and coach Ted Nolan is now one of eight Indigenous ex-NHL-ers being honoured hockey trading cards as a part of Upper Deck's First Peoples Rookie Card series.
Indian police have arrested more than 2,000 men in a crackdown on illegal child marriages involving girls under the age of 18 in a northeastern state, officials said Saturday.
The mayors of Port Coquitlam and Port Moody want Nav Canada — the organization that creates flight paths for airports across the country — to pause its plans for a new YVR arrivals route that will direct many large airplanes over their communities.
Seventy-nine-year-old William Herbert thought the woman coming to see him was a nurse who needed to do bloodwork. But instead of helping him, it’s alleged she stole from him.
An Edmonton man who received a ticket from the city under the phase 2 residential parking ban earlier this week says his street has finally been plowed — five days after his vehicle was ticketed.
Marc, Seth and Zacary James are the Melisizwe Brothers, and they performed at Jasper Place High School on Friday as part of Edmonton Public School Black History Month celebrations.
Technology in Alberta that is expected to allow doctors to more accurately and effectively treat cancerous tumours with radiation enters clinical trials next week.
After being charged with speeding by a city-operated photo radar device, a Toronto family was able to successfully fight the charge in court largely due to one small detail.
Torontonians appear to be returning downtown in greater numbers but the pace of the city’s economic recovery still lags behind many other North American cities, a new study suggests.
Alberta's high court is being asked to overturn a review board decision relating to the stabbing deaths of five young people at a Calgary house party on the grounds the former provincial justice minister interfered.
Residents from Quebec to Newfoundland and Labrador are waking up this morning to more extreme cold weather. Emergency officials warned people to seek shelter and monitor for frostbite if they had to be outside overnight, as the temperature across much of Eastern Canada was expected to feel like -40 C to -50 C with the wind chill.
A reclusive billionaire who headed a Montreal tech company is stepping down one day after Radio-Canada/CBC published a report that alleged he paid teenage girls for sex for more than a decade.
With all of the Maritimes still under extreme cold warnings Saturday morning, more than 33,000 households and businesses are without power, as of 10:30 a.m.
Winnipeg police released a new image of a 31-year-old woman who has been missing since early last year on Friday in the hope it may generate new information on her whereabouts.
A fire destroyed a popular paint and hobby shop in Winkler Thursday afternoon with black smoke prompting Winkler police to close off a stretch of Highway 32 for more than an hour.
Waterloo regional police issued a robbery warning Thursday evening after they said two convenience stores and a restaurant in Kitchener were robbed within a 30 minute span.
Saskatchewan is reacting to the removal of controversial amendment G4 to Bill C-21 by the federal Liberals, which banned certain semi-automatic rifles and shotguns.
Parents of students with special needs are speaking out about a decision by the Simcoe County District School Board to change transportation options starting Monday.
After months of driving around the city with an advertisement for a kidney donor on her bright red car, Debbie Onishenko will soon be able to rip off the decals as her search has ended.
Canada's newest millionaire, an 18-year-old university freshman from northern Ontario, has achieved a lot of firsts with a recent lottery win. Here is her story.
An investigation that lasted almost two years has resulted in moose hunting violation convictions for six people and a lodge in Red Lake in northwestern Ontario.
