A plane with two men aboard remains missing north of Sault Ste. Marie after 350-plus hours of flight time and 17,300 square kilometers covered by searchers.
Friends John Fehr and Brian Slingerland left Delhi, Ont., for Marathon, Ont., on April 14. They were flying in a recently purchased Piper Comanche and planned to travel to Alberta. A search began that evening when they were overdue in Marathon. The Comanche’s last known location was about 60 kilometers north of the Sault.
Three helicopters searched for the missing plane on Saturday. Civilian Air Search and Rescue Association aircraft did not participate because of “quite rainy” weather conditions, said public affairs officer Capt. Marc Dube of air taskforce headquarters. Those three to four pilots, from St. Catharines, Ont., checked data collected from the last known location area to try and find possible leads.
The search did not find the plane. No signal has been received from the plane’s emergency locator transmitter.
“It makes the most sense tracking the flight plan of the aircraft and the last radar information we got from them,” said Dube. Searchers are also checking “other areas” where the Comanche may be.
Snow is up to five feet deep in the search area.
“None of it has melted or receded,” said Dube. “It’s been quite cold still. No change to the tough search conditions right now.”
Sault Ste. Marie Airport, acting as the base for the search effort, is 630 feet above sea level. The area being searched ranges from 1,000 to 2,000 feet above sea level, said Dube. That difference in elevation can cause “different formations” of weather than conditions experienced in the Sault.
The Comanche’s flight plan did cross “a little bit” of Lake Superior.
“I can’t rule it out,” said Dube, when asked if the plane may be in a body of water. “It’s not out of the question.”
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