Carson Air Swearingen 226 plane crash
Vancouver, Canada
Updated on
The Swearingen SA226-TC Metro II cargo plane, operated by Carson Air, was carrying freight from Vancouver International Airport, Canada, to Prince George Airport, British Columbia, Canada with a crew of two pilots on board. Shortly after departure, approximately 15 nautical miles north of the airport, when the aircraft was at about 2400 metres above sea level, lost altitude rapidly and crashed. Both occupants were killed.
Rescue ground search crews found aircraft wreckage in steep and heavily wooded terrain southeast of Crown Mountain. More wreckage, including the cockpit, was found the next day. There was a small fire in the area of the right engine nacelle. The emergency locator transmitter activated, but did not transmit (no signal was received).
The crew did not declare an emergency. The aircraft dropped from an altitude of 2,400 metres to about 900 metres — the height at which the wreckage was found — in less than 20 seconds. This with the wreckage dispersal and the lack of terrain damage is consistent with an in-flight break-up, according to the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.
