Family and friends are grieving the loss of a pair of Calgary men who were killed when their small plane went down in a mountainous region between Merritt and Hope, B.C. on Thursday.
Ken Umbach and Terry Stewart were found dead in the wreckage of Umbach's Cessna 182 on Friday afternoon that was reported missing after it failed to show up for a scheduled landing in Nanaimo a day earlier.
The pair had taken off from Springbank Airport on Thursday morning and were heading to British Columbia for a fishing trip for Canada Day long weekend.
Search crews recieved a transmission from an emergency beacon just over an hour after the plane took off, eventually leading searchers to the crash site, located between Merritt and Hope.
Peter Farran, a longtime friend and colleague of Stewart's, is saddened to hear the news.
"He had just retired. He was a really nice guy and I'm really sad. I'm thinking about his family."
Farran says he worked with Stewart for about 30 years at the Alberta Children's Hospital.
"He was a few years senior to me, so when I was in training, he was one of my mentors and teachers and then I went on to become a partner with him."
He says that Stewart was a man who had a lot of energy and a strong ability to juggle a whole lot of tasks at the same time.
"He was always generous to his friends and took care of them and was always a very loyal friend."
The investigation into the crash is still ongoing.
