Humanitarian missing

Photo: Live Different

A Canadian humanitarian worker is among three people missing after a small plane crashed off the north coast of the Dominican Republic.

Humanitarian organization Live Different, which is based in Hamilton, says long-time employee Benjamin Cole Brown was on board the aircraft with two Americans at the time of the crash.

The three were returning from Haiti where they had delivered donations and other aid to help local residents rebuild from a recent hurricane.

Brown, 36, was managing programs in the Dominican Republic and had lived abroad for nearly a decade.

Live Different spokeswoman Jennifer Digiandomenico says organization staff are at the crash site awaiting word on the search for survivors.

She says employees are holding out hope that the man they referred to simply as Cole is still alive.

"We love Cole so much," she said in a telephone interview. "He is a big part of the Live Different family, which extends all across Canada and the Dominican Republic and Haiti. We have received so many phone calls and emails from people in all three countries who are still praying and thinking of Cole."

Digiandomenico said Brown boarded the personal plane with Chuck and Candy Ritzen, an American couple also involved in the humanitarian aid field, on Monday night as the three prepared to return to the Dominican Republic.

The plane, she said, was Chuck Ritzen's personal aircraft that was frequently used for travel between the two islands.

A spokesman for Global Affairs Canada said they were informed that a Canadian citizen was missing off the coast of the Dominican Republic.

"Debris from a small aircraft has been recovered near Puerto Plata and consular officials at the Consulate of Canada in Puerto Plata Consular are in contact with local authorities to gather additional information," Austin Jean wrote in an email to The Canadian Press.