Transportation Safety Board of Canada investigators looking into the plane crash that killed former Alberta premier Jim Prentice say there was no voice or data recorder on the plane, a fact that makes their investigation challenging.
No distress calls were received prior to the crash, which investigators say occurred at 9:40 p.m. local time – about eight minutes after the Cessna Citation took off from Kelowna International Airport.
Investigators had no new information about what may have caused the crash, but said that they are still in the “field phase” of the investigation.
“Investigations are complex, and we will take the time needed to complete a thorough investigation,” said TSB senior investigator Beverley Harvey at a press conference on Saturday.
The bodies of Prentice and the three others who were killed in the crash remained at the scene Saturday as the B.C. Coroners Service investigates.
The aircraft was not required to carry recording devices, but the investigation is challenging without them.
“It is difficult,” Harvey said of the lack of a black box.
She added that investigators will analyze any other electronic devices inside the plane that may provide more clues of what happened.
In the coming days, investigators will photograph and document the wreckage and make arrangements to transfer any relevant findings to a lab in Ottawa for further examination.
The investigation could take several months, Harvey said.
“We would like to have this investigation completed within one year,” she said.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada released new images of the crash site on Saturday. The photographs show intense damage sustained to the small plane as well as surrounding brush in the area.
Prentice was a former Alberta PC premier and former federal cabinet minister in the Conservative government of Stephen Harper. He left federal politics in 2010 to take a job as senior executive vice-president of CIBC and later ran for the Alberta PC leadership.
The crash also killed pilot and retired RCMP officer Jim Kruk, Calgary optometrist Ken Gellatly -- the father-in-law of one of Prentice's three daughters -- and businessman Sheldon Reid.
