Former Alberta Premier Jim Prentice killed in plane crash
Posted October 14, 2016 1:03 pm.
Last Updated October 14, 2016 2:44 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Former Alberta premier Jim Prentice has been killed in plane crash in British Columbia.
Government sources confirmed that Prentice was on board the small jet that went down Thursday night shortly after taking off from the Kelowna airport.
The plane was en route to the Springbank airport, outside Calgary.
The Transportation Safety Board says all four people on board died.
Prentice, 60, also a former federal cabinet minister, quit politics in May 2015 after the Alberta NDP swept the Progressive Conservatives from power.
Former Alberta health minister Stephen Mandel said he was shocked to learn of the death of his friend and colleague.
He expressed his condolences to Prentice’s wife Karen and their extended family.
“It is incredibly sad for Albertans and Canadians, it is sad for Karen, his family and their grandchildren,” Mandel said from Edmonton.
“Jim was an incredibly passionate, wonderful fine person. He felt deeply about people and whether there was opportunity for them.”
Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall said he enjoyed working with Prentice when he was a federal cabinet minister and then as premier of Alberta.
“Tami and I express our deepest condolences to Jim’s family and friends and to all Albertans,” he said on social media. “This is a deep loss for all of Canada.”
A team of investigators from the transportation safety board was at the scene of the crash Friday northeast of Winfield, about 18 kilometres north of Kelowna.
Board spokesman Bill Yearwood said the Cessna Citation aircraft crashed about 10:30 p.m. Thursday, but he did not have any other information on what might have caused it to crash.
RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk said police were alerted when the business jet lost radar contact and officers secured the scene. The RCMP said its officers and a police dog reached the crash scene shortly after midnight.
“There was catastrophic damage at the crash site,” said Moskaluk.
Sam Samaddar, director of the Kelowna International Airport, said the plane left at 9:32 p.m. and the airport was notified that radar contact with the plane was lost at about 10:15 p.m.
The plane, which can carry up to eight passengers, crashed about 10 kilometres northeast of the airport, he said.
Samaddar could not say who is registered as the plane’s owner or whether it was rented.
