A Calgary businessman and Royal Canadian Air Cadet squadron advisor are the other two victims of an airplane crash on Thursday evening in the Central Okanagan.
Sheldon Reid, a shareholder in Norjet, the owner of the Cessna Citation aircraft that crashed, and Jim Kruk, associated with the 83 ‘Lynx’ air cadet squadron based out of Airdrie, a rural community north of Calgary, were on the fatal flight along with former Alberta premier Jim Prentice and Calgary optometrist Kenneth Gellatly, whose son was married to Prentice’s daughter.
A statement released by the RAC squadron said Kruk was heavily involved with the air cadet program.
“Jim leaves behind a family with a great connection to the cadet program, and the Canadian Armed Forces and we are saddened along with the entire community,” said the statement.
“Our thoughts are with all who lost their lives, and their families.”
The men were flying home to Calgary from a late-season golf game in Kelowna when the crash occurred, shortly after the plane took off from Kelowna International Airport on Thursday evening at 8:30 p.m.
Prentice, 60, served as premier of Alberta from September 2014 to May 2015 before his Progressive Conservative government fell to the NDP in last year’s provincial election. Prior to that, Prentice made his mark politically as a cabinet minister in former prime minister Stephen Harper’s government.
Today, Canada Transport Safety Board investigators are at the crash scene, northeast of Winfield about four kilometres off Beaver Lake Road in a densely forested area, pouring over the wreckage to find the flight data recorder and any other signs of what might have caused the plane to crash.
The RCMP described the scene on Friday as catastrophic, saying the investigation to determine the cause of the crash could take some time to complete.
