What happened
On the morning of the occurrence, a Cessna 172L, registered as C-FQTR, departed from the Kamloops Airport in British Columbia. The aircraft was being operated by a student pilot for the purpose of a two-hour local training flight.
When the aircraft failed to return to the airport at the scheduled time, TylAir Aviation Ltd. alerted the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Victoria. Despite the launch of a search operation, no signals were detected from the aircraft's emergency locator transmitter by the Canadian Mission Control Centre or other monitoring agencies. The wreckage and the single fatality were discovered by search and rescue teams the following day. There was no evidence of a post-impact fire at the site.
The investigation
The investigation focused on the circumstances surrounding the aircraft's disappearance and the subsequent discovery of the wreckage. Investigators examined the flight's departure, the timeline of the overdue notification, and the lack of emergency signaling from the aircraft's onboard equipment.