Fatal Occurrence 2009O2471
Plane Crash Kills Pilot and Two Men Who Ran Cat Lake First Nations Youth Program
Provincial police wouldn't release the victims' names pending autopsies. The band's search co-ordinator, Russell Wesley, said Ronald Ombash and Dean Meekis died after the Lockhart Air Services plane went down Friday night in a remote, densely forested area 20 kilometres southwest of Cat Lake.
The male pilot, who was from Dryden, Ont., but whose name was not immediately released, was flying the two passengers from Sioux Lookout, about 160 kilometres away. Witnesses say he aborted the landing at the Cat Lake airport Friday night, said Wesley.
About 150 people from the First Nation and Deer Lake conducted ground and water searches for the Cessna 310, but because it was night, couldn't pinpoint where the plane went down, he said.
According to three witness accounts, ``the airplane... looked like a shooting star,'' Wesley said.
``About two to three seconds after that a blue flash was noted and the plane started its downward cycle followed by a loud noise, probably impact noise.''
Another person saw the six-seater plane descend rapidly with its lights on but thought it was landing, he added.
CFB Trenton, Ont., dispatched a Griffon helicopter and a Hercules aircraft Friday night, and a Hercules aircraft from CFB Winnipeg joined the search on the weekend, said Capt. Mike Young.
A faint emergency locator transmitter signal was picked up by a Hercules plane Sunday evening.
Two search and rescue technicians from CFB Winnipeg parachuted into the crash site in the dark using flares but found no survivors, said Young.
Wesley said Meekis, formerly of Deer Lake, was his brother-in-law while Ombash was his first cousin but was ``more of a brother.''
Meekis was in his late 30s and Ombash was about 47, he said. Both men ran Cat Lake's youth and summer employment programs.
``They were very successful at what they did,'' Wesley said.
``This is a huge loss not only for the community but the youth and the extended family.''
Ombash's children and grandchildren live in the community of North Superior Lake while Meekis had extensive family in Deer Lake, he said.
Wesley estimated half of Cat Lake's community doesn't speak the aboriginal language but Ombash tried to pass on the old traditions to the youth he mentored.
``Most communities in the far north have a dying population of traditionalists, of people that hang onto the traditional way of life, the hunting-gathering culture, the retention of language, the retention of spiritual and cultural activities,'' said Wesley.
``Ronald was one of those people who tried to retain the language and the cultural teachings and conveyed those to his younger audience.''
Grief counsellors from Cat Lake and Sandy Lake were helping people cope with the loss, he said.
Howard Lockhart, who said he used to own the air carrier but now works at Lockhart Air Services in Sioux Lookout, Ont., said the pilot had been flying for 25 years and it ``makes no sense it all it happened.''
He wouldn't identify the pilot. However a family friend said the pilot was from Dryden.
Other pilots at Lockhart Air are ``terribly broken up'' about the crash and it is a ``very traumatic thing,'' said Lockhart.
Pilots are getting grief counselling but are coping, he said.
Transportation Safety Board spokesman John Cottreau said three investigators were en route to the scene Monday but it's too early to speculate on the cause of the crash.
Provincial police headed to the crash scene Monday afternoon to retrieve the bodies, said Sgt. Shelley Garr from Thunder Bay.
