Pilot Ron Johnston, 57, chief executive officer of Expander Energy Inc. in Calgary, and the older brother of Thompson Mayor Tim Johnston, is missing and presumed dead, after the Cessna 414 Alpha he was piloting disappeared off the coast of Nova Scotia near Sydney last Thursday night.
Also missing and presumed dead is Dennis Forgeron, 43, the founder and chief executive officer of Calgary-based Forent Energy, an oil and natural gas company, who purchased the aircraft in Ontario early last week and hired Johnston to fly him to his native Cape Breton. The Cessna was built around 1979.
Both men were experienced pilots. Forgeron was a member of the Calgary Flying Club and Johnston was on its board of directors.
Johnston was piloting the plane when it disappeared. The eight-seat Cessna 414 Alpha had left Buttonville Airport, just north of Toronto, heading towards the J.A. Douglas McCurdy Sydney Airport. In fog and thunderstorms, the plane suddenly veered north, resumed ascending and lost its communications.
At about 11:30 p.m. Aug. 5 - just 30 minutes before its expected arrival in Cape Breton - the plane dropped off radar about 14 kilometres from the coast.
Tim Johnston, who had just recently returned from a month-long vacation in the Maritimes, Newfoundland and New England, was en route back to Nova Scotia Saturday.
The military search, directed by the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) Halifax, which is responsible for 103 Rescue Unit in Greenwood, lasted 42 hours and discovered no sign of the wreckage over Dominion Beach and Lingan Bay. The Atlantic Ocean search consisted of Hercules aircraft from 413 Transport and Rescue Squadron at 14 Wing Greenwood on mainland Nova Scotia and a Cormorant helicopter that flew in from Gander, Newfoundland to assist in the search. A Cormorant from Greenwood, equipped with special night lights and able to fly near the surface of the water, also joined the search, as did the Canadian Coast Guard vessel Edward Cornwallis and several fishing boats, which are part of the coast guard auxiliary.
On Saturday, the military called off its search for Johnston and Forgeron. The RCMP have taken over the recovery operation off the coast of Nova Scotia and Preventer, an RCMP coastal patrol vessel, was en route and expected to arrive Monday morning, along with a Zodiac boat.
Ron Johnston had previously worked as vice-president of corporate development of Rally Energy, a junior oil and gas company in Calgary, where he identified and negotiated both domestic and international business opportunities.Expander Energy Inc. is an Alberta-based privately held industrial company focused on the production of engineered synthetic fuels from renewable resources. Expander plans to construct a bio-refinery near Edmonton, using biomass (wood waste) to produce Fischer Tropsch (F/T) synthetic diesel.
Forgeron's family in the small Cape Breton community of Main-a-Dieu, halfway between Sydney and Louisbourg, released a statement to the media through the RCMP Saturday.
"We continue to channel our thoughts and prayers in the ongoing search and rescue operation for Dennis and the pilot, Ron Johnston," the statement reads. "We wish to thank the dedicated professionals and volunteers who are working to find our missing son, husband, father, brother and friend.
"Thank you to our wide circle of close friends and family who join us in hope and prayer for their safe return. Thank you all."
