Image Credit: Contributed

By James Peters

Plane Crash

Pilot seriously injured in crash at Merritt Airport

Feb 10, 2020 | 10:18 AM

MERRITT, B.C. — RCMP and the Transportation Safety Board are looking into a plane crash in Merritt that seriously injured a pilot.

WATCH: Photos of crash site (Video Credit: Contributed)

According to a news release from RCMP Southeast District spokesman Cpl. Jesse O’Donaghey, the investigation began with a missing person report just after midnight Monday morning (Feb. 10).

A frontline officer looking into the report found a small white and green plane had crashed on the tarmac at Merritt Airport.

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Inside, the pilot, a man his 60s, was trapped. Emergency crews freed him from the wreckage and took him to hospital, where he was treated for serious injuries.

In an email, a spokesperson for B.C. Emergency Health Services says the incident may have happened as early as 5:00 p.m. Sunday, meaning the pilot could have been trapped inside the plane for more than seven hours before he was discovered.

O’Donaghey says the pilot’s current condition is not known.

RCMP have alerted Transport Canada to the incident, and O’Donaghey says RCMP investigators will support the TSB in its investigation.

Meantime, the City of Merritt, who operates the airport, say about one centimetre of snow was measured in Merritt as of Saturday (Feb. 8) at 9:00 a.m.

In a news release, the City says the airport’s runway was plowed on Saturday morning, ending at 10:40 a.m.

CAO Scott Hildebrand notes that, as a non-towered airport, “flight planning is coordinated through the NAV Canada Flight Information Centre in Kamloops.”

The airport reopened at 3:00 Monday afternoon.

Any witnesses to the crash incident are asked to contact Merritt RCMP at (250) 378-4262.