Six dead after small plane crashes in mountainous region in Canada’s Calgary

Plane lost contact shortly after taking off from Springbank Airport near Calgary in Alberta province

File photo of a Piper PA-32 craft. Six people died after a single-engine Piper PA-32 plane crashed in Canada (Bob Adams/Flickr Creative Commons)

Six people have died in Canada after a small plane crashed in the mountainous region in Alberta province, authorities said.

The incident occurred in Kananaskis Country, west of Calgary, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said on Saturday.

The RCMP said an aircraft with five passengers and a pilot left Springbank Airport near Calgary on Friday night en route to Salmon Arm, British Columbia.

However, contact with the aircraft was lost around 9.30pm local time (03.30 GMT Saturday), RCMP staff sergeant Ryan Singleton said.

Shortly after the plane was reported overdue, a search was conducted by a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) squadron based in Winnipeg.

Rescuers scouted through the crash site to find the passengers on board, but all six people in the plane had died, Mr Singleton said.

Police said a Royal Canadian Air Force Hercules plane was dispatched to search for the missing aircraft and searchers located it on Mount Bogart, about 60km west of Calgary, by honing in on an emergency locator transmitter.

The RCMP and Alberta Parks Mountain Rescue led the operations.

“Recovering the bodies of the pilot and the passengers was very challenging due to the difficult terrain. However, all six bodies have been successfully recovered,” Mr Singleton said.

The names of the victims have not been released yet.

But the RCMP said the Transport Safety Board of Canada is conducting an investigation into the crash.

A Transportation Safety Board spokesman said the aircraft was a single-engine Piper PA-32, and the board is investigating the crash.