The BC Coroners Service has identified Jayson Dallas Wesley Smith, 30, of Vancouver as the man who died in the Piper PA30 Twin Comanche plane that crashed into a wooded area near Brenda Mines Monday afternoon.
"He died of basic multiple blunt force wounds," said a representative from the corner's office.
No word on the identites or the condition of the other three people who were aboard the plane when it smashed into the ground 30 km outside Kelowna near the Okanagan Connector, although the plane's history is becoming clearer.
Registration letters on the wreckage match an entry in the Canadian Civil Aircraft Registry. That entry is for a Piper PA30 based in Boundary Bay and co-owned by Rick Zyvitski of Comox and Maplewood Landscaping of Delta.
The BC Coroners Service and the Transportation Safety Board continue to investigate this incident. More will be made available Wednesday morning.
Original story, Aug. 13, 2012 8:00 PM
One person is dead and three are critically injured, following a Monday night plane crash into a wooded area near Brenda Mines, just off the Okanagan Connector.
"A man and a woman were airlifted to Kelowna General Hospital and a second woman was airlifted to Kamloops Royal Inland Hospital last night from the crash site," said Const. Kris Clark of the Kelowna RCMP.
"All three sustained life threatening injuries and remain in critical condition. Efforts continue to notify their family members."
The Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Victoria was first notified that the flight had gone down around 3 p.m.., when a WestJet plane picked up an emergency beacon that went off upon impact. The pilot had not placed a distress call. From there air ambulance and rescue crews were dispatched and the aircraft was found around 5 p.m. when a Buffalo search and rescue plane picked up the crashed aircraft's signal, said Rod Braun of the Central Okanagan Search and Rescue.
The crews parachuted into the scene, a few kilometres beyond the Brenda Mines turn off and located the wreckage of the small Piper PA30 Twin Comanche aircraft.
The plane was believed to have been flying from Penticton to Boundary Bay near White Rock in the Lower Mainland when the crash occurred.
Although little information has been made available, more is expected to come in throughout the day. The Transportation Safety Board dispatched a team of two investigators to the scene and they should arrive around noon.
John Cottreau, media spokes person of the TSB, said they'll be working at the crash site for the next two days.
"Typically our guys will get onto the Transport Canada website first and download anything about that plane," he said, explaiing that will include looking into the pilot's certification and maintenance history.
"Then they go on the site, documenting the whole thing photographically."
From there a clear picture of what caused the plane to go down should emerge.
Police say the crash occurred in a wooded area about five kilometres from the scene of a float plane crash earlier this year that claimed three lives The cause of that crash is not yet known.