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Search ongoing for plane missing in N.W. Ontario

By: Carol Sanders

9/11/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Searchers spent the weekend looking for a small plane that went missing in northwestern Ontario Friday night with three people on board.

The search continues today for the missing Lockhart Air Service charter with a pilot and two passengers who were en route from Sioux Lookout to Cat Lake First Nation.

Peter Hildebrand with the Transportation Safety Board in Winnipeg said Sunday night they've had reports of the missing plane and that Canadian Forces air search and rescue was involved.

A massive water and ground search is also underway.

"We've been searching for two days, all day," said Romeo Wesley, a member of Cat Lake First Nation who was searching on the ground with about 30 other Cat Lake and nearby Deer Lake residents. They are fanning out on the ground and over the lake in an area where the plane is believed to have gone down Friday night, Wesley said.

"We're doing this because a light was spotted coming from west side as if it was approaching the runway," he said. The plane from Sioux Lookout -- about 180 kilometres south of Cat Lake -- should have been arriving at about that time, he said.

"At about 9:30 we had a bingo starting here and kids were playing outside. They said the plane went by to attempt a landing, then swooped up again," Wesley said. "There must have been a problem. Then (the pilot) made a circle and wanted to make another approach... . The kids saw a big fireball and they heard the impact," said Wesley.

They couldn't tell how far away it was, he said. Search crews spent the weekend fanning out over the area.

"We couldn't find any debris," said Wesley. He said the plane's two passengers were middle-aged men on their way back to Cat Lake, and one of them was returning from a Sioux Lookout medical appointment with a load of groceries.

"Some other group found jumbo Mr. Freezes floating on the water," said Wesley.

Cat Lake First Nation is an isolated First Nations community of nearly 550 people accessible only by air.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 9, 2009 A7

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