On Saturday SaultOnline published the story of a downed aircraft, north of Sault Ste. Marie. Since that time our reporter has been investigating and keeping in touch with Major Trevor Reid, Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Trenton, Ontario.
The plane, identified in a post by Mary Reimer as the one containing her brother and his friend, was registered C-GEWK.
According to flightradar24.com, that plane left Delhi, Ontario at 19:43 UTC or 3:43 p.m. on April 14, 2022.
According to JRCC, it was headed to Marathon, Ontario for this leg of its flight.
Flight tracking appeared to be normal until 5:36 p.m. when the track ends just south of the west arm of Ranger Lake.
Reid had this update this morning.
“So we obviously have aircraft out searching. Conditions have improved markedly since the plane first was reported overdue back on Thursday. So we had favourable search conditions yesterday, we had a CH-46. Griffin helicopter, that was doing some night searches last night with the NVG’s (Night Vision Goggles), unfortunately, that did not prove fruitful,” said Reid. “So we’ve got the aircrafts out today again to search along the plane’s the flight plan… we’re searching not only in the areas where the plane was last observed…but of course, we’re also searching all the way to its destination for that particular route that it was making from Delhi to Marathon.
Mary Reimer is the sister of one of the occupants onboard and made this post yesterday morning.
“John Fehr (my brother) and his friend Brian Slingerland are still missing despite the ongoing search for them since Thursday night. Today is the first day they will have a clear day in order to search properly. They have been saving some resources for today. Let’s pray hard that the weather holds, and that God will give the searchers direction as where to look. I’m still praying for a miracle that they would be found alive although despair is pulling pretty hard the other way. We know that GOD knows and want to trust HIM for the outcome. Please keep Johns’s wife Lisa and Brian’s wife Sue in your prayers as well as their children. Waiting and not knowing is so incredibly hard…”
We asked JRCC how long they would continue the search of the rugged terrain in the area. Reid wouldn’t say if or when the search would be called off.
“We’re still conducting our search operations. You know, I’m not going to speculate, we take these things literally minute by minute, hour by hour,” said Reid. “That’s basically where our focus is here, trying to find a favorable resolution.”
There has been no sign of the aircraft to this point according to JRCC.
“We haven’t seen or heard anything by way of a an ELT [electronic location transmitter). But there are many reasons that an ELT might not be be heard.”
Stay with SaultOnline/ONNTV as we continue to follow this developing story.
We’re praying for these lost souls and hoping they weren’t forced to land on a freezing cold lake.
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