Search for small plane missing in southern B.C. will resume Wednesday

VICTORIA — Searchers say they’re still looking for new clues three days after a small plane with two people on board vanished in southeastern British Columbia.

Lt. Melissa Kia with the Victoria Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre says rescuers scored an area about 18 kilometres north of Revelstoke again on Tuesday with aircraft and ground crews, including search dogs.

She says the searchers saw no signs of the aircraft before shutting down the search for the night on Tuesday.

The rescue centre’s spokeswoman, Katelyn Moores, says the search grid has been refined based on more complete information from radar and the cellphone tower that picked up a signal from the pilot’s phone at about the same time the plane was reported missing on Saturday.

The plane was on a flight from Penticton, B.C., to Edmonton when it disappeared.

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CTV News is reporting the pilot’s name is Dominic Neron, a 28-year-old journeyman electrician from Spruce Grove, Alta., and his girlfriend Ashley Bourgeault, who is 31.

Moores says the search area is mountainous and densely forested, and that combined with the heavy snow was making the search challenging. 

It is an area Eldon Gjesdal, a pilot who sold Neron’s plane to him in the spring, said is also challenging to navigate.

“It’s just very rugged. The valleys are very closed in and if it’s the Rogers Pass in the Revelstoke area, it’s rough terrain,” Gjesdal said.

Gjesdal said Neron bought his 1963 Mooney from him after flying for about two years. He eventually wanted to get his commercial licence.

The search is expected to resume again on Wednesday morning.

(CTV Edmonton, The Canadian Press)

The Canadian Press