Saturday, July 26, 2025
ADVT 
National

Plane was in training spin when it crashed, killing instructor and student: report

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 29 Jan, 2025 05:00 PM
  • Plane was in training spin when it crashed, killing instructor and student: report

A report says a plane was doing a training spin at a lower-than-recommended altitude when it went down in a lake near Edmonton, killing a flight instructor and a student pilot.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada says the plane was working properly and the weather was fine when it crashed in August 2023.

The student was on his 13th training flight when the plane took off from the Cooking Lake Aerodrome and crashed in Beaverhill Lake.

A search team found the wreckage after several hours, along with the body of the instructor, and the student died two days later of his injuries.

The report says the plane successfully pulled out of a deliberate first spin but, for unknown reasons, didn't recover from the second.

It says the last manoeuvre started at a lower elevation of 2,531 feet above ground level instead of 4,000 feet, which is standard practice for a training flight.

"While a spin from this height should have been recoverable, neither the student pilot nor the flight instructor was able to effect a recovery. The investigation was unable to determine the reason," said the report released Wednesday.

It said the Cooking Lake Aviation Academy has since revised its flight operations manual to formalize minimum altitudes for upper-air work and spins.

Diamond Aircraft Industries Inc. has also highlighted safety issues with its DA20-C1. The report says an emergency locator transmitter didn't activate when the plane crashed and that it's believed a wire on the device was not installed during assembly.

"Consequently, search and rescue efforts to reach the accident site were delayed," said the report.

MORE National ARTICLES

Snowfall warning for parts of BC's northeast

Snowfall warning for parts of BC's northeast
Environment Canada has issued a snowfall warning for parts of B-C's northeast. The weather office says Highway 97 in the Pine Pass area is expected to see up to 15 centimetres of snow accumulation today.

Snowfall warning for parts of BC's northeast

Who's in and who's out of the Liberal leadership race

Who's in and who's out of the Liberal leadership race
The federal Liberals are running their first leadership race in more than a decade to replace the departing Justin Trudeau. Candidates must declare today by 5 p.m. ET with a $50,000 deposit towards a $350,000 fee to be in the race. The winner will be named on March 9. Here's a quick look at who's in and who's out.

Who's in and who's out of the Liberal leadership race

Karina Gould submits paperwork to enter Liberal leadership race on deadline day

Karina Gould submits paperwork to enter Liberal leadership race on deadline day
Liberal leadership contender Karina Gould submitted her official paperwork to enter the race to replace Justin Trudeau today. Gould said outside party headquarters in Ottawa that her party lost touch with Canadians at the end of the pandemic and needs to get better at listening.

Karina Gould submits paperwork to enter Liberal leadership race on deadline day

Mark Carney secures four more key endorsements in race to become Liberal leader

Mark Carney secures four more key endorsements in race to become Liberal leader
Liberal leadership hopeful Mark Carney has secured the endorsements of four more current and former cabinet ministers. On Tuesday, Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Minister Gary Anandasangaree and former housing minister Sean Fraser all threw their support behind Carney on social media.

Mark Carney secures four more key endorsements in race to become Liberal leader

Laundering of fentanyl cash linked to online betting sites, intelligence agency warns

Laundering of fentanyl cash linked to online betting sites, intelligence agency warns
Canada's financial intelligence agency suspects online gambling platforms are being used to launder proceeds from fentanyl dealing and production. In an operational alert, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada says there is reason to believe people are depositing and withdrawing funds at online casinos to disguise proceeds from the traffic in deadly fentanyl and other opioids as wagers and winnings.

Laundering of fentanyl cash linked to online betting sites, intelligence agency warns

Canada's digital services tax, online regulation bills a likely Trump trade target

Canada's digital services tax, online regulation bills a likely Trump trade target
The heads of the biggest U.S. tech companies attended Donald Trump’s inauguration Monday. They included Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Apple’s Tim Cook and Google’s Sundar Pichai, as well as Tesla CEO and vocal Trump supporter Elon Musk.

Canada's digital services tax, online regulation bills a likely Trump trade target