With snow in the forecast by the end of this week, It might be impossible for any chance for a visual confirmation of the 1963 Mooney Plane that went down several weeks back.
The Sinclair family are still in Revelstoke searching for their family member, Dominic Neron and his girlfriend Ashley Bourgeault who are now a missing persons matter with the local RCMP. Until any new tips or possible sitings come to light, there can be no further investigation.
On Wednesday, December 13th, Brian Lecompte, Judd Popplewell and Raymond Sinclair (brother-in-law to Neron), flew in Lecompte’s Piper Comanche plane over several mountain passes in search of the missing plane.
Lecompte volunteered to take Sinclair up for a few hours to go for a look in a few of the hidden areas he knows very well. With over 2200 hours of flight experience, Lecompte knows how to navigate the rocky terrain. Along with Popplewell, who was his co-pilot for the day, at 300 hours, these two know the area well.
Lecompte flew the crew around Mount La Forme, The Trans-Canada demon; Heather Hill and the Rogers Pass area.
I was invited along to join the excursion with Lecompte, Popplewell and Sinclair. As we hit 5000 feet over the Rogers Pass area, the vast land is truly overwhelming; almost intimidating, even on a clear day, especially while trying to find a needle in a haystack.
“If he went into a spiral trying to get out of the soup, it would be like dropping a pencil into the forest. Very hard to find.” Lecompte shared with all eyes hunting the mountain scape.
One issues was the Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) was never set off. If the plane had a hard landing, the ELT is designed to detect a bad interia, as long as it is armed. Even if the plane had a relatively easy landing, the ELT may not have been able to be accessible after the fact, therefore, no ELT signal could have been sent.
When asked if their was any indication that Neron may have flown passed the Rogers Pass area, Sinclair indicated that it wasn’t likely.
“We were told that the ping was found right in this area, had he made it further, a tower towards Golden would have been able to pick it up.”
After several hours of flight around the glacier and several mountain passes, the final flight around came to a disappointing conclusion.
According to Sinclair, family and friends have been on a rotation between Alberta and Revelstoke to maintain the search. They are hopeful for something to come to light before until the snow covers everything until next spring.
