The 42-year-old man, who was found deceased at the scene following a plane crash on a grass airstrip at the Flying U Guest Ranch on North Green Lake before noon on June 16, has been identified as Jonathan Lindsay Blair of Edmonton, Alberta.
The pilot, a 74-year-old man, was the deceased man's father and the owner of the Piper Cherokee Arrow plane.
He was airlifted to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops and he remains in serious condition. His identity is yet to be released.
Bill Yearwood of the Transportation Safety Board says the small private aircraft crashed while landing on the airstrip.
The pilot has since been interviewed by local rescue officials, Yearwood says.
"He says it was an aborted landing. He came in to land, aborted, and collided with the trees on the opposite side of the runway.”
The Transportation Safety Board has classified the crash as a Class 5 level investigation due to the severity of the occurrence.
Yearwood gave an update on the current state of the investigation.
“We are assisting the British Columbia Coroners Service with the investigation. The Transportation Safety Board is assessing the occurrence and gathering data.”
Investigators have sifted through the plane wreckage and it has been removed from the airstrip.
Yearwood says the focus of the investigation has now shifted to the cause of the aborted landing.
“We know of the landing occurrence, but we still have to determine the issues that led to the crash.”
100 Mile House Fire Rescue fire chief Roger Hollander says they got a callout at 11:50 a.m. on June 16 and responded with one vehicle to the crash site.
Green Lake Provincial Park – Sunset View operator Peter Mayr says he heard the plane coming in for a landing before the crash.
“I heard these two loud bangs like backfire. I ran to the beach to see the plane and heard one more backfire before it crashed.”
The exact cause of the crash is still under investigation, and it's expected it will take some time before it's solved.