Updated: One dead after Brenda Mine plane crash

 Posted by at 7:38 pm  Categories: Central Okanagan
Aug 132012
 

Update (7:50 p.m.). . . One person is dead after a Piper Commanche with four people on board crashed at the Brenda Mine site west of Peachland.

RCMP Cnst. Kris Clark confirmed via a press release that one person is deceased and three others are in critical condition.

Beaver search aircraft over Brenda Mine

A Beaver search aircraft circles over Brenda Mine early Monday evening. (Dave Preston photo)

by Dave Preston

A small plane with a reported four people on board crashed at the Brenda Mine site early Monday evening.

The plane went down about 5 p.m., according to the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Victoria. scanBC.com is reporting the plane was a Piper Commanche. The plane apparently took off from the Penticton airport, about 55 kilometres from the crash site. It was headed for Boundary Bay.

A Buffalo aircraft and a helicopter were dispatched to the scene to begin a search while ground crews headed to Brenda Mine via Hwy. 97C, the Connector.

Numerous ambulances and search and rescue vehicles headed up the Brenda Mine Road from the Connector. The were accompanied by a number of personnel from West Kelowna Fire Rescue. Rescuers were staging closer to the Peachland Lake side of the Brenda Mine site.

Brenda Mine site

(Google maps)

A firefighter at the Brenda Mine gate said patient contact was made at about 6:30 p.m. The victims were found several kilometres up Brenda Mine Road.

Reports are that it took some time for search aircraft to locate the crash site.

Brenda Mine is located about 30 kilomtres west of Peachland.

This is the second plane crash in the area this year. On May 13, three people lost their lives when their small plane crashed just a few hundred metres off Hwy. 97C, several kilometres west of Brenda Mine.

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Comments

  1. maththetraveller says:
    August 14, 2012 at 11:27 am

    That’s sad. My condoleances to the family. Is it not the 2nd plane to crash near Brenda Mines in a couple months?

  2. rexracer says:
    August 14, 2012 at 6:21 am

    While that was true of the Beaver earlier in the year, last night’s place was not on that flight path, catabatic flow was not particularly strong in the valley last night and there was no place trying to gain altitude. The Beaver, when it passed over my house earlier in the year had ample altitude above the valley so only time will tell what the real problem was.

  3. pole walker says:
    August 13, 2012 at 8:46 pm

    second plane down (this season) trying to climb out of the draws from Peachland.

    we were always told NEVER try to gain altitude by flying up a canyon. …air pockets and down drafts …are your enemy.