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Pilot dies in plane crash southwest of Prince George

A team of Transportation Safety Board investigators has been sent to gather evidence from the scene a fatal plane crash about 160 kilometres southwest of Prince George.
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A team of Transportation Safety Board investigators has been sent to gather evidence from the scene a fatal plane crash about 160 kilometres southwest of Prince George.

The pilot was killed while the four passengers survived when a de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver went down near Moose Lake and the New Gold Blackwater mine property on Monday morning, Burns Lake RCMP said.

The plane had left Vanderhoof at about 9 a.m. and RCMP was notified of the crash at about 9:25 a.m. It had been destined for Laidman Lake, about a 30-minute flight away from Vanderhoof and just east of Entiako Provincial Park.

The crash was called in by one of the survivors from a cellular phone.

The pilot's name was not released but according to CBC he was Leonard Banga, a well-known Saskatchewan mining contractor.

All four survivors were extracted from the crash site in rescue baskets lowered from a helicopter after three search and rescue technicians from CFB Comox parachuted onto the site and provided first aid.

Vanderhoof search and rescue technicians, meanwhile, were able to land near the site and extricate the body of the deceased pilot from the wreckage.