COCAINE FLIGHT A SURPRISE TO CITY COMPANY

Pilot-Training Firm Loses Plane When Drug-Runner Crashes

The owner of a Kamloops flight school was surprised as anybody to
learn that one of her planes had crashed near Okanagan Lake just
south of Vernon with more than 100 kilograms of cocaine on board.

"We are largely concerned with how the plane was used, and we
certainly don't endorse illegal activities for any of our aircraft,"
said Tammy Pitkeathly, owner of YKA Flight Discovery Ltd., a flight
school located at Kamloops Airport.

"We are not in any way connected with [the pilot's] activities at that time."

At the break of dawn Wednesday, Vernon RCMP officers located a
four-seat Piper Warrior aircraft that had crashed at around midnight
Tuesday about 23 kilometres south of Vernon in the mountains on the
west side of Okanagan Lake.

The body of a man, believed to be the pilot, was found at the crash
site, along with 109 kilograms of cocaine.

According to RCMP, the area in which the plane went down is part of a
known drug-smuggling route connecting Canada and the United States.

The Piper was one of three planes belonging to YKA Flight Discovery.

According to Pitkeathly, a Vernon man had rented the plane for last
weekend but failed to return it Sunday.

The renter, a recreational pilot, called YKA twice after the deadline
to return the plane had elapsed, and left messages saying the cloud
ceiling was too low for him to take off.

"He was calling at the times he knew we were not open," Pitkeathly told KTW.

During the times the pilot had indicated, only Tofino on the west
coast of Vancouver Island had the reported 800-foot-low cloud ceiling
among locations in B.C.

At that point, Pitkeathly grew suspicious and tried to track down the
renter by checking his address and calling the two telephone numbers
he had left.

Neither were traceable.

Pitkeathly then called Nav Canada to trace the plane, only to learn
the pilot had failed to register a flight plan.

"At that point, we had no idea where he was, and the next call we got
was from search and rescue," she said.

Pitkeathly had no reason to be suspicious when the pilot - neither
she nor the RCMP would release his name - rented the plane last week.

She had dealt with him before, and a few weeks ago one of YKA's
flight instructors had taken the man on a test flight.

"The instructor had no indication or concerns that, one, he couldn't
handle the plane, or two, that he might be using it for illicit
purposes," Pitkeathly said.

The man presented the two documents necessary to rent a plane: a
recreational pilot permit and a medical certificate.

Nighttime flying is not allowed with a recreational permit.

As a result of this week's incident, Pitkeathly said she is
considering changing the rules under which people can rent planes, to
make the rules more stringent.

YKA has a fleet of three planes: one Piper Warrior and two Diamond Katanas.

The plane that crashed near Vernon this week was the same Piper
Warrior that was forced to do an emergency landing in Westwold last year.

Pitkeathly said the plane has no history of equipment failure, and
that weather conditions led to last year's emergency landing.

Insurance will pay for the crashed plane.