Pilot walks away from plane crash in B.C.'s North Okanagan
Cessna 180 outfitted with floats went down northwest of Vernon shortly before 7 p.m. PT Monday
UPDATE: Okanagan plane crash witness recounts finding pilot alive
The pilot of a small plane that went down in B.C.'s North Okanagan is in hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries, officials say.
Bill Yearwood, spokesman for the Transportation Safety Board, says the pilot was the lone occupant of a Cessna 180 with floats that crashed Monday evening near Vernon.
Two local fire departments confirmed that they received reports of an aircraft going down in a heavily-wooded area on the west side of Okanagan Lake at around 6:45 p.m. PT.
Vernon RCMP, local search and rescue, the B.C. Ambulance Service and the Okanagan Indian Band Fire Department responded to an area roughly 11 kilometres northwest of Vernon, off Six Mile Creek Road.
"Several residents who live nearby and heard the plane go down assisted as well," said Vernon RCMP spokesman Gord Molendyk.
The pilot was able to walk away from the crash site, he said.
Kayla Pepper of the B.C. Wildfire Management Branch said scout and first attack crews were called off after confirming that there was little to no fire risk at the crash site.