RCMP recover 3 bodies after float plane crash off Vancouver Island
Mounties say they have recovered the bodies of all three people who were aboard a float plane that crashed off B.C.'s central coast last week.
The crash occurred Wednesday afternoon in Strachan Bay, about 50 kilometres north of Port Hardy.
Wreckage of the plane wasn't found until two days after the crash on Friday, despite immediate search efforts.
On Monday, the RCMP said the bodies of all three people aboard were located over the weekend.
"Efforts to locate the plane and any potential survivors have been ongoing since the day of the crash,” said Cpl. Alex Bérubé, spokesperson for the BC RCMP, in a statement.
"Working through challenging weather conditions, our divers were able to locate the bodies of the pilot and the two passengers on Saturday, Nov. 26," he said.
Police say there's no suspected criminality involved in the crash.
The BC Coroners Service is continuing its investigation and is now in possession of the bodies.
Shortly after the crash, Port Hardy Mayor Patricia Corbett-Labatt told CTV News the fatal crash was "devastating" for the community.
The plane was heading from a logging camp in B.C.'s central coast to Port Hardy.
The plane was owned by Air Cab, which is based out of Coal Harbour, near Port Hardy.
Joel Eilersten, owner of Air Cab, told CTV News that he had ongoing concerns about two weather stations in the area that had been out of service for quite some time.
After the crash occurred, the Transportation Safety Board said it was dispatching investigators to the scene.
With files from CTV News Vancouver Island's Gord Kurbis and The Canadian Press.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Why wasn't the suspected Chinese spy balloon shot down over Canada?
Critics say the U.S. and Canada had ample time to shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon as it drifted across North America.

Survivors scream as desperate rescuers work in Turkiye, Syria
Rescue workers and civilians passed chunks of concrete and household goods across mountains of rubble Monday, moving tons of wreckage by hand in a desperate search for survivors trapped by a devastating earthquake.
Rescuers scramble in Turkiye, Syria after quake kills 3,400
A powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked wide swaths of Turkiye and neighbouring Syria on Monday, killing more than 2,600 people and injuring thousands more as it toppled thousands of buildings and trapped residents under mounds of rubble.
New details emerge ahead of Trudeau-premiers' health-care meeting
As preparations are underway for the anticipated health-care 'working meeting' between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canada's premiers on Tuesday, new details are emerging about how the much-anticipated federal-provincial gathering will unfold.
The world's deadliest earthquakes since 2000
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake shook Turkiye and Syria on Monday, killing thousands of people. Here is a list of some of the world's deadliest earthquakes since 2000.
Quebec minister 'surprised' asylum seekers given free bus tickets from New York City
Quebec's immigration minister says she was 'surprised' to learn the City of New York is helping to provide free bus tickets to migrants heading north to claim asylum in Canada.
opinion | Don Martin: Alarms going off over health-care privatization? Such an out-of-touch waste of hot political air
The chances Trudeau's health-care summit with the premiers will end with the blueprint to realistic long-term improvements are only marginally better than believing China’s balloon was simply collecting atmospheric temperatures, Don Martin writes in an exclusive column for CTVNews.ca, 'But it’s clearly time the 50-year-old dream of medicare as a Canadian birthright stopped being such a nightmare for so many patients.'
'Buildings are broken': Calgary man in Turkiye describes disaster scene post-earthquake
Calgarians at home and abroad are reeling in the wake of a massive earthquake that struck a war-torn region near the border of Turkiye and Syria.
U.S. 6-year-old who shot teacher allegedly tried to choke another
A 6-year-old Virginia boy who shot and wounded his first-grade teacher constantly cursed at staff and teachers, chased students around and tried to whip them with his belt and once choked another teacher 'until she couldn't breathe,' according to a legal notice filed by an attorney for the wounded teacher.