Former Alberta premier among those killed in plane crash north of Kelowna
Posted October 14, 2016 8:19 am.
Last Updated October 14, 2016 5:29 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
KELOWNA (NEWS 1130) -The Transportation Safety Board says there were no emergency calls or signals before the plane carrying former Alberta premier Jim Prentice and three other people crashed into a heavily wooded area in southern BC.
No one survived the crash of the small jet that was en route from Kelowna to near Calgary when it went down shortly after takeoff last night.
A preliminary Transport Canada report says the Cessna 500 jet owned by Norjet took off from Kelowna and climbed to an altitude of 86-hundred feet before disappearing from radar.
The family of Jim Prentice has issued a statement expressing ”profound shock” and sadness after a plane carrying the former Alberta premier crashed in a heavily wooded area in southern British Columbia.
Tributes are now coming in for the former federal cabinet minister, who was 60.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is offering his condolences, saying Prentice was well liked and respected across all party lines.
Prentice quit politics last year after the Alberta NDP swept the Conservatives from power.
Prentice, also a former federal cabinet minister, quit politics last May after the Alberta NDP swept the Progressive Conservatives from power.
The Transportation Safety Board confirms four people were killed after a twin-engine jet went down in some hills north of Kelowna.
BC Premier Christy Clark describes Prentice’s death as a terrible loss for Canada. “Jim Prentice was that guy who you could make an agreement with for any amount of money on a handshake and he would keep it. He was a guy who would keep confidences, no matter what happened. He was a man of his word and he was a man who wanted the best for the people he served.”
The Cessna Citation 550 took off from Kelowna just after 10 p.m. on Thursday. It was en route to Springbank Airport near Calgary when something went wrong. “They dropped off radar, they lost their target at about 8,600 feet on the climb-out. The search [teams] found the wreckage just northeast of Winfield. Tragically, everyone lost their lives,” explains Bill Yearwood with the Transportation Safety Board.
The crash site was located by Mounties about four kilometres into a heavily wooded area north of Beaver Lake Road east of Lake Country.
A team of investigators is now trying to figure out what went wrong and who the plane belonged to. Nothing is known at this point about the victims, however, the Coroner in Kelowna has been notified and the RCMP is involved.
The Cessna 550 is a regional commuter jet, not the brand’s typical single engine propeller plane and it’s more often used by business commuters.
