Bad weather conditions may have caused the plane accident that claimed the life of 44-year-old Aldergrove businessman Dean Sorken and his 39-year-old brother Lee.
That’s according to accident investigators looking into the Friday (June 3) crash of the older Sorken’s four-seater Mooney M-20 in a farmer’s field near Bashaw, Alberta.
Dean, an experienced pilot who began flying as a teenager, had flown to Vernon to pick up his younger brother for a trip to to Killam, Alberta, to attend a family wedding.
When the plane failed to arrive, a search was launched that led to the discovery of the wreckage on Saturday.
The Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash, said the the Mooney M-20 apparently hit the ground nose-first at a high rate of speed.
The brothers were found pinned underneath the plane 10 feet underground.
The wreckage is being transported to Edmonton for further inspection.
Dean was a well-known Aldergrove businessman whose company, Real West Innovative Designs Inc. built equestrian courses, staged events and sold clothing.
Sorken made quite an impression.
Lee was a project superintendent working for Salmon Arm-based Hoban Equipment overseeing the Highway 97A projects near Armstrong.
“I’m going to miss them,” older brother Kevin Sorken told CTV News Sunday.
“They’re my best friends as well as my brothers, ’cause we did everything together.”
Kevin was supposed to fly up with his
brothers but changed his mind and drove up instead to get there earlier.
“It’s pretty tough,” he said.
“It still hasn’t hit me yet.”
– with files from CTV News and the Vernon Morning Star
