The Transportation Safety Board is investigating after a pilot en route to La Ronge died in a crash in British Columbia yesterday afternoon.
The victim is a 55-year-old former La Ronge resident.
Officials say the Cessna twin engine aircraft took off from the southeastern B.C. community of Nelson at around 1:00 p.m. local time yesterday.
TSB western spokesperson Bill Yearwood says the wreck containing one person was located at around 10:00 p.m.:
“And he was expected to arrive in La Ronge at around 19:00 — and was reported missing at about 10:00 last night. The spot tracker and his aircraft allowed some identification of his location, and they found him northeast of Crawford Bay.”
Local wild rice producer Lynn Riese says the pilot spent quite a bit of time in La Ronge over the years.
Riese says the pilot was on his way to La Ronge to work on some of his planes:
“He is a good friend of mine, and he was flying here to do some work for me on my airplanes. The weather was bad. I guess he turned back shortly after taking off out of Nelson, B.C. He is a commercial pilot, and he has his own company — an aviation company, a maintenance company — and he’s a pilot engineer, an aircraft engineer.”
Investigators with the TSB are expected at the crash site today.
The pilot’s name has not been officially released.