The investigation into the 2016 plane crash that killed four passengers, including former Alberta premier Jim Prentice, after it departed Kelowna has been completed and results will be announced later this week.
The Transportation Safety Board will hold a news conference Thursday to release its investigation report on the Oct. 13 2016 crash of the Cessna Citation 500, and the Capital News will report on its findings.
At the time of the crash RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk said the Cessna Citation private business aircraft was owned by Norjet, a Calgary-based firm, and had departed Kelowna International Airport en route to Springbank, outside of Calgary.
“I know that heavy rain was felt across the Okanagan Valley but difficult to say if that was an issue in this case,” Moskaluk said.
The Transportation Safety Board released a statement at the time also, saying that there were no emergency calls or signals from the high impact crash that scattered debris over a vast space.
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RCMP, with the help of a police dog, were able to get to the scene just before midnight, and received assistance from local search and rescue volunteers.
“It’s a complex scene right now and it will take some time for the investigation of the crash site to be completed,” Moskaluk said.
“The terrain is hilly and densely forested, but we were able to access the site from a nearby forest service road.”
The site of the crash was northeast of Winfield, about four kms north of Beaver Lake Road and about 18 kms north of Kelowna.
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Kelowna RCMP and Lake Country RCMP detachments were alerted by the Surrey Air Traffic Control Centre that they had lost contact with a Citation jet shortly after its takeoff from Kelowna airport.
Also onboard that night were Sheldon Reid, a shareholder in Norjet, the owner of the Cessna Citation aircraft that crashed, and Jim Kruk, associated with the 83 ‘Lynx’ air cadet squadron based out of Airdrie, a rural community north of Calgary, and Calgary optometrist Kenneth Gellatly, whose son was married to Prentice’s daughter.
The men were flying home to Calgary from a late-season golf game in Kelowna when the crash occurred.
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