Search and rescue group claims responsibility for plane wreckage found near Kamloops
What looks like the scene of a plane crash north of Kamloops is nothing to worry about, according to a search and rescue group.
The central body of an aircraft was discovered by a hunter on Nov. 3 and reported to RCMP. Police then investigated what was believed to be a crash site, and the discovery was listed as a crash on Transport Canada's Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Reporting System (CADORS).
But according to the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association (CASARA), a volunteer organization, it's not the site of a crash: it was placed there intentionally, two years ago, as a training tool for search crews.
Orvin Walden, a CASARA pilot, said the part was placed on private land, and clearly marked with 'CASARA' and phone numbers, so it wouldn't be mistaken as a real crash site.
"We put it there so that we could train our spotters and navigators how to find it on the hillside," he said.
The salvaged plane that the volunteer Civil Air Search and Rescue Association (CASARA) uses for training near Kamloops was carried up a mountain on a trailer bed in 2021. (Submitted by CASARA)
The location was strategic, he said. It's away from the normal flight routes that planes take going into Kamloops, which allows pilots to practice flying in the area without disrupting other aircraft. The winds are also tricky along the mountainside, Walden said, which adds challenge to the training exercise.
"I thought it was far enough back that nobody was going to be up there because it is on … (a) guy's private woodlot," he said.
Although Walden said the plane was marked, the report posted on the CADORS website described it as having "no registration or identifying marks visible."
Walden said that pilots from the Canadian Forces Base Trenton have used the fabricated crash site for training.
The plane part was acquired from a salvage yard near Kamloops, and transported on a trailer to the mountainside. Walden said it's visible from Google Earth.
"I guess the cows have moved … (it a) little tiny bit because it used to point north and south, and now it's pointing east and west," he said.
CBC News reached out to Kamloops RCMP and they said they will be providing an update later today.
