How mystery of ‘decades-old’ plane crash in Canada mountains was finally solved after cops were left baffled by wreckage
THE mystery behind a horror plane crash wreck that seemed to be “two decades” old has finally been solved.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were baffled after studying the wreckage found near the north of Kamloops in British Columbia.
Officers were deployed to survey the remote crash site after receiving a tip from a local hunter who discovered the aircraft on November 3.
After reaching the scene, the cops found only a single piece of wreckage – a fuselage without wings, motor, doors, and even seats.
Experts surmised that the plane had probably been destroyed in a crash, but no bodies were discovered near the site.
An investigating officer said: “Only the body of the plane remained and no registration numbers were found,” according to The Guardian.
Very little was known about the aircraft and the mystery appeared to be bewildering.
Officers studying the crash site concluded that the wreckage has been there for around two decades – and was listed as a “crash” on Transport Canada‘s Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Reporting System (CADORS).
The Canadian body suggested that the plane was “destroyed”, likely by “collision with terrain”.
The mystery deepened even further after cops revealed a media report stating no reports of missing planes or passengers were found.
Soon, however, members of Canada’s Civil Air Search and Rescue Association (CASARA) – a non-profit working in the field of flight safety – came forward with a goofy truth.
Search experts placed the wreckage on a mountaintop last summer, as a prop for training programmes.
CASARA pilot Orvin Walden said the prop wreck was placed on private land with a clear insignia – even phone numbers – so it would not be mistaken for a real crash site.
He added: “We put it there so that we could train our spotters and navigators how to find wreckage on the hillside.”
According to Walden, pilots from the Canadian Forces Base Trenton used the fabricated crash site for training purposes, CBC reported.
The chosen location was “strategic”, he said as it was away from the normal flight routes that planes take going into Kamloops.
This allows pilots to practice flying in the area without disrupting other aircraft.
While Walden said the plane was clearly marked, a previous report published by CADORS revealed it had “no registration or identifying marks” as such.
Plane wreckage after a crash can easily be lost in the wilderness of the Canadian backcountry.
To better cope with such horror scenarios, search and rescue experts are trained on old plane wreckage or scrapped planes.
Fred Carey, director general of British Columbia’s air rescue, said: “We like to make it as real as possible for them: smoke, injured people.
“They love it and we get to treat it like a real downed aircraft.”
The damaged fuselage was never meant to be a secret after it was first placed near Knouff Lake – and both the local airport and the province’s main rescue coordination hub in Victoria were notified, according to Carey.
He said that placards were placed in thr wreck and even [phone numbers were attached.
“I’m not sure what happened, maybe the placards wore off. But in this case, it doesn’t look like the authorities followed protocol,” Carey said as reported by The Guardian.