Relatives of one of the two pilots, who went missing last month in northern Ontario, were aboard a charter plane that spotted the wreckage on Saturday.
The wreckage of a small plane that went missing last month in northern Ontario was found by members of the family of one of the missing pilots, who hired a private plane to conduct his own search, SooToday has learned.
Members of Brian Slingerland’s family were on board the chartered plane when the downed plane was spotted Saturday in Lake Superior Provincial Park near Old Woman Bay, confirmed Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Detective Officer Trevor Tremblay.
“I’m not sure what tactics they used,” Tremblay said. “But they found the plane about seven kilometers from the last known point on the radar.”
Tremblay says family members were flying most of the day on Saturday when they came across the wreckage in a heavily forested area. An OPP helicopter searched nearby and “put boots on the ground to confirm within minutes,” he said.
The bodies of the two men were retrieved from the crash site. At the moment, their families have requested confidentiality.
Slingerland and his friend John Fer, both residents of the recently acquired Piper Comanche, were from Alberta and both had private pilot licenses. Departing for Alberta, the couple took off from Delhi, Ont. and they had to land in Marathon when they disappeared.
After disappearing from radar on April 14, more than 350 hours of search and rescue efforts were devoted to locating the missing plane before the mission ended on April 24.
The Transport Safety Council confirmed that they are currently in the field of investigation, which means that they are collecting data, documenting the scene of the accident and taking photos.
Although the crash site is close to the highway, it is difficult to access. “The area is heavily forested and a bit swampy nearby,” Tremblay said. “The crash site was very isolated and small. The plane suffered catastrophic damage in the crash.”
TSB is in the initial stages of the investigation and the cause of the accident is currently unknown.
“The RSO is taking over the investigation from here,” Tremblay said. “The remains will be removed in the near future by the insurance company.”
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