Searchers scour for signs

UPDATE: 4:40 p.m.

The search for a small plane and two passengers that disappeared en route to Kamloops, could take weeks, says a military spokesman.

Castanet was told 10 Civil Air Search and Rescue Association and six military aircraft were brought in for the search to sweep the vast area between Cranbrook and Kamloops

A Piper Warrior plane was reported missing Thursday afternoon after it took off from Cranbrook, in southeastern B.C.

Police said the aircraft was flying to Kamloops and two people are believed to have been on board — pilot Alex Simons, 21, of Kamloops and passenger Sidney Robillard, 24, of Lethbridge, Alta.

Searchers have very little information about what may have happened, Elliott said, noting they know the plane originally took off from Lethbridge and stopped in Cranbrook to refuel.

Searchers working out of Kelowna have taken the plane's intended flight path and drawn an area around it, based on a variety of statistics, Elliott said.

Military aircraft are now systematically scouring that area at a variety of altitudes to try to find signs of the missing plane. Local search and rescue groups and the RCMP are assisting.

Searchers are also looking into potential sightings reported by members of the public, which Elliott said have been "very, very helpful."

The hunt will continue indefinitely, he added.

"We're going to keep searching until we've covered (the area) to our satisfaction," Elliott said.

But low clouds and heavily wooded terrain are making the task difficult, and Elliott said the search could last weeks, depending on the weather.

— With files from The Canadian Press.

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UPDATE: 10:50 a.m.

Low cloud, steep terrain, trees and snow are combining to make the search for a small plane in the Southern Interior even more difficult.

This is the fourth day of the search for the Piper Warrior that went missing on a flight from Cranbrook to Kamloops on Thursday. Alex Simons, 21, and Sydney Robillard, 24, were on board the four-seater aircraft.

“The weather is not good,” said Cpt. Dennis Powers of the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre based in Kelowna. “There is a lot of low cloud, the search area is very mountainous, there is snowpack and we're looking for a mostly-white plane and the terrain is steep with a lot of trees.”

Powers said the search area covers 150 miles (241 kilometres) with much of the focus at this time at the southern end closer to Cranbrook, although he stressed the whole route is being covered.

Volunteer pilots and spotters from the Okanagan Valley and the Thompson region were in the air, helping the military with the search.

“We have about 14 aircraft in the air, ten are CASARA (Civil Air Search and Rescue Association) volunteers. A lot of the volunteers are from the Okanagan, from Penticton to the south and north to Kamloops. They are of tremendous assistance.”

Powers said trained CASARA volunteers were also on board four military aircraft acting as spotters.

He said the military aircraft included two Comorant helicopters and two C-115 Buffalo fixed-wing planes.

Another military spokesperson is reported by The Canadian Press as stating searchers have little information about what happened to the aircraft, but they do know that a thunderstorm rolled through Cranbrook shortly after the plane departed and weather may have been a factor in the disappearance.

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ORIGINAL STORY: 6:55 a.m.

The search for a missing aircraft that failed to show up on a flight from Cranbrook to Kamloops has entered its fourth day.

Mountainous terrain and poor weather hampered the search Saturday.

"We will continue to search until all stones have been overturned and all areas covered thoroughly," Capt. Gregory Clarke of the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre, told CTV.

A command centre set up at the Kelowna airport is co-ordinating search efforts, including four military aircraft plus additional civilian planes.

Alex Simons, 21, and Sydney Robillard, 24, were on board the four-seater Piper Warrior. Simons was piloting the aircraft when it went missing Thursday.

The plane left Lethbridge, Alta., and refuelled in Cranbrook, taking off at 2 p.m. 

Simons earned his pilot's licence in March from Excel Flight Training in Lethbridge, which owns the aircraft.

"He took her up around Lethbridge and other places many times and she loved it," Robillard's mother told CTV.

Search crews are focusing on the plane's flight path, plus a 15-mile zone around it.

"We are systematically searching this area from three different altitudes," Clarke said. "We start up high, searching electronically the first night. Then, continue down in a top-down approach and get down to about 500 feet in our final passes."

– with files from CTV Vancouver