FORT NELSON, B.C. -- Federal transport department investigators from Edmonton studied the wreck of a Cessna 206 Sunday that crashed during a storm about 70 kilometers northeast of Fort Nelson, Oct. 30, killing three people.
Department spokesman John Mallandaine said investigators Bob Cook and Don Borden had been called to the site, in the remote northeast corner of British Columbia, after rescue authorities located the plane late Friday following a week-long search.
There were no survivors of the crash, which killed pilot George Dvorak, 47, and Ian Turpey (age unknown) of Fort Nelson, and Art Aplin (age unknown) of Calgary.
Chief Coroner Joe Carpenter said the B.C. coroner's office was also investigating the crash.
He said the crash was British Columbia's thirty-third with fatalities this year, a figure 'disturbingly higher' than the average 24 or 25 accidents, he said.
Capt. Ron Aumonier of the search and rescue coordination center in Victoria said a helicopter spotted the fuselage of the plane sticking up through the snow.
'It was extremely hard to see,' said Aumonier. 'We were lucky the snow melted a bit so the fuselage was exposed.'
The three men were en route to Fort Nelson from Helmut, B.C., when they hit bad weather, said Aumonier. They radioed ahead that that they were turning back, but never arrived.
Meanwhile, the search continued north of Port Hardy, B.C. for a Cessna 180 missing since Oct. 23, with pilot Edward Carder of Minstrel Island, B.C.