Fatal plane crash near Mission fire

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Fatal plane crash near Mission
It appears two planes clipped wings
News1130 Staff Feb 09, 2011 17:21:11 PM
1    MISSION (NEWS1130) - At least one man has been killed after two planes collided in mid-air near Mission.

Mission RCMP Sergeant Miriam Dickson says it happened around 4:15 in the Deroche area. "They ended up upside down in the Nicomen Slough. When the police arrived, them, fire and some of the locals actually waded out into the slough and pulled the individuals from the plane. One was unfortunately already deceased."

The second occupant was taken to the hospital by helicopter.

Matt Johnson saw one of the planes go down. His fiancée saw the same planes flying nearby before the crash. "Two planes that were doing stunt-like manoeuvres,  flying low to the water, doing loop-de-loops and things of that nature."

Samantha Guy is training to be a pilot with Coastal Pacific Aviation and says they train in the Deroche area because they aren't flying over many houses. "They just teach you in that whole Sumas practice area how to do everything, like how to go up, how to go down, how to recover from a stall  if your engine turns off or you get into a spin, how to recover and stuff like that. The Sumas practice area is where we learn all our basic stuff and all our emergency procedures."

She says they regularly fly Cessna 172s. We have not confirmed the planes which crashed are from Coastal Pacific.

Lougheed Hwy was blocked at Waring Road in both directions, but has since been re-opened.

We'll have much more throughout the evening with News1130's Lara Fominoff.

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