Mystery behind ‘decades-old’ plane crash is finally solved after hunters stumbled upon wreck in Canadian mountainside

• The wrecked plane was a prop used by Canada ‘s Civil Air Search and Rescue Association (Casara) for a training exercise 
• Canadian investigators were first stumped having little knowledge about the doomed plane located north of Kamloops by Community Lake 
• British Columbia man stumbled upon the damaged aircraft while hunting and first reported the finding to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) 

The mystery of a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness has been solved after Canada’s Civil Air Search and Rescue Association (Casara) admitted it was out there for a training exercise.

The ‘carcass’ of the Cessna was placed on the mountain last summer in order for search-and-rescue teams to practice and be prepared in the event of any real-life aircraft disasters.

The plane was hauled up the mountain by a logging skidder and placed north of Kamloops by Community Lake.

On November 3, a British Columbia man stumbled upon the damaged aircraft while hunting in the Canadian wilderness and reported the finding to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

The mystery of the doomed plane gained momentum when no bodies were found in the fuselage.

The mystery aircraft that was used as a prop by Canada’s Civil Air Search and Rescue Association 

According to Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Reporting System, little was known about the aircraft, other than it was ‘destroyed’ likely by ‘collision with terrain.’

It was listed as a crash on Transport Canada’s Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Reporting System (CADORS), CBC reported.

Officers were swiftly dispatched to the site where they spotted the mangled plane which had no motor, wings, doors, no seats, and most curiously, no bodies. 

According to a police spokesperson ‘only the fuselage remained,’ and there were ‘no registration numbers attached, the Guardian reported.

The mystery plane baffled police with theories emerging that the crash had taken place more than two decades ago.

But, Orvin Walden, a CASARA pilot, said the plane’s part was placed on private land, and clearly marked with ‘CASARA’ and phone numbers, so it wouldn’t be mistaken as a real crash site.

‘We put it there so that we could train our spotters and navigators how to find it on the hillside,’ he said.

Walden said the plane was intentionally placed there, away from the normal flight routes, into Kamloops, which allows pilots to practice flying in the area without disrupting other aircrafts, as per the news outlet.

‘I thought it was far enough back that nobody was going to be up there because it is on … (a) guy’s private woodlot,’ he added.

‘We like to make it as real as possible for them: smoke, injured people,’ he said. ‘They love it and we get to treat it like a real downed aircraft,’ Fred Carey, director general of British Columbia’s air rescue said 

Fred Carey, director general of British Columbia’s air rescue, explained the importance of these training drills. 

If a plane crashes in the wilderness, the vast terrain can make the wreckage extremely difficult to locate. 

In one tragic incident, a large military transport plane carrying 44 crew and passengers disappeared in the north of the Yukon territory. 

The plane and crew members were never found, despite a massive search and rescue effort. 

To prevent tragic events like that one from happening again, Carey explained that that search-and-rescue teams practice on historic wrecks or scrapped planes.

‘We like to make it as real as possible for them: smoke, injured people,’ he said. 

‘They love it and we get to treat it like a real downed aircraft.’

During training on the mystery aircraft, Carey said a team hauled the Cessna up a mountainside north of Kamloops using a logging skidder and it was ‘quite the chore.’

Carey said the local airport and the province’s main rescue coordination hub in Victoria were notified of their training program and claimed that the damaged fuselage was never meant to be a secret.

‘There are placards in the wreck and even a phone number to call,’ he said. 

‘I’m not sure what happened, maybe the placards wore off. But in this case, it doesn’t look like the authorities followed protocol.’

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