RCMP find body from float plane that crashed near Little Grand Rapids, Man.
Nicholas Frew | CBC News | Posted: October 28, 2019 7:19 PM | Last Updated: October 29, 2019
Mounties continue search for other 2 people who were on plane
Manitoba RCMP have found the body of a passenger who died in a plane crash near Little Grand Rapids last weekend.
Police have not named any of the three men who were on the plane, but said they found the body of a 49-year-old man from Family Lake, about 250 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.
The other two men — the 39-year-old pilot and a 42-year-old passenger — still have not been found, but the RCMP dive team continues its search.
The community of Little Grand Rapids, nearly 270 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, is holding a vigil tonight for the people who were on the float plane.
Candles are being flown up for the vigil at the Little Grand Rapids Lodge, where the plane was supposed to land, the Little Grand Rapids First Nation band office said Monday morning.
Plane debris was found in Family Lake after witnesses reported seeing the aircraft clip a tree before hitting the water, RCMP said in a news release Saturday.
Angel Compton lives on Little Grand Rapids First Nation and saw the crash while she was having breakfast.
"We were just having coffee and looked out the window and there was a plane, and it looked to be making a really strange turn, and all of a sudden, the wing fell off one side and then it started to go down," she said.
"I ran to the porch and looked outside and saw it go down behind the trees, and then I heard a loud bang."
The plane was owned by Blue Water Aviation Services, an air charter service out of Pine Falls, Man. The company is not commenting on the crash at this time.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) announced Monday that it is deploying an investigator to Little Grand Rapids to look into how the crash happened.
The TSB said the aircraft involved was a de Havilland DHC-3 Otter — a single-engine bush plane, manufactured by Ontario-based de Havilland Aircraft of Canada Ltd., that can seat 10 to 11 passengers.