By Lara Fominoff / Lethbridge News Now

Civilian air search group hopes to resume search for missing Kamloops-bound plane

Mar 21, 2018 | 3:55 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB. — A spokesperson for the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association (CASARA) says members are hoping to get out this spring as the snow melts and resume the search for 24-year-old- Lethbridge resident Sydney Robillard, and 21-year-old Kamloops resident Alex Simons.

The two left Lethbridge in a single engine Piper Warrior June 8, 2017, bound for Kamloops. They stopped in Cranbrook to refuel, but once the plane left the airport, the two were never heard from again.

Simons had recently completed pilot training in Lethbridge.

Fred Carey says there is no new information at this point in the search, but they’ve been going over details and the open case file has been wearing on the volunteers.

During non-active search times, Carey says members will review the case file and see if there’s anything they missed.

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“There’s a few things we’d like to look at that we didn’t get finished on the main search that we spent two weeks on. It was such a vast area on that particular search and rescue… we’re going to rehash the old stuff and see if there’s something new we can come up with.”

Some of those new ideas include following up on cellphone pings or records from the pilot.

“He did have a cellphone, so we’re going to try see if he went to the places that he normally should have gone, where his cellphone should have checked in and it didn’t. So one area through the St. Mary’s Pass that he could have gone through, and I think we’ve done a search there, but it looks like we can probably go back and look into that area again because of the probability there it could be higher due to the fact that there was no cell coverage through there, and there was no cell response for the rest of the search.”

Carey says it’s something that they knew about while they were searching months ago, but because the area is so vast, and they didn’t have many resources, the group is hoping to concentrate on it more as the snow melts.

He says it’s also close enough to the Cranbrook area, that they may be able to incorporate it into their training as well.

“We’re coming up to our year end budget for training. And in that case, we start April 1, and so spring’s coming, we get our new budgets coming in and it’ll be up to the zone commander whether that’s going to work for him or not, to be able to do those things.”

He’s hoping though, that their members will be able to work in some flights.

“If it doesn’t get resolved, it just weighs on you. What have you missed? What have you done? I mean, you put so much effort into trying to find them, and it’s hard on you. But it’s a volunteer thing. That’s what we sign up for and we try to do the best we can.”