Chilliwack (with files from CityNews1130/CKNW) – OCTOBER 7 UPDATE – TSB and other officials moved the wreckage to a secure part of Chilliwack Airport.
Black Press is quoting NDTV, an Indian News Site , that two men from Mumbai (Abhay Gadru and Yash Ramugade) were the passengers and were on a pilot training flight. RCMP and the BC Coroners Service have not confirmed this. The name of the pilot has not been released as well .
OCTOBER 6 UPDATE – Chilliwack RCMP Sgt. Pete Healey confirmed all three people on board had died. BC Coroners Service and TSB now on site. They issued at release at 3:45 Friday afternoon October 6 – The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) is deploying a team of investigators to Chilliwack, British Columbia, to investigate a small aircraft accident involving a Piper PA34. The TSB will gather information and assess the occurrence.
The TSB is an independent agency that investigates air, marine, pipeline, and rail transportation occurrences. Its sole aim is the advancement of transportation safety. It is not the function of the Board to assign fault or determine civil or criminal liability.
According to Transport Canada, the plane is a Piper model PA-34-200, and is owned by Langley-based SkyQuest Aviation, which runs a flight school out of Langley Regional Airport.
SkyQuest declined to comment on the situation on Friday.
OCTOBER 6 ORIGINAL STORY – Just after 2PM on Friday October 6, a small plane with three people on board, crashed between Elements Casino and the Chilliwack Motor Inn. Mere yards away from Chilliwack Airport (YCW).
Chilliwack Fire Duty Chief, Engine 1, Engine 4, Engine 1-2, Rescue 1, responded at 2:15PM.
2 helicopter medivacs were paged for a launch. By 2:30PM FVN learned that the TSB Transportation Safety Board had investigators en route.
One EMS personnel told FVN that “it didn’t look good”. One witness claims the plane went down nose first.
The plane itself is in a thick stretch of blackberry and bramble bushes.
More to come.
