RCMP have found the crash site and human remains from a missing twin-engine Cessna that disappeared in bad weather off Cape Breton Aug. 5.
Piloted by Ron Johnston, 57, of Calgary, older brother of Thompson Mayor Tim Johnston, the plane disappeared from radar over the Atlantic Ocean's Lingan Bay off Dominion Beach while approaching the J.A. Douglas McCurdy Sydney Airport in fog and thunderstorms shortly before midnight
RCMP spokeswoman Brigdit Leger said Aug. 17 the plane's fuselage was found in 170 feet of water six nautical miles off the coast of Glace Bay by the 42-foot RCMP coastal watch vessel Preventor, which has been equipped with side-scan sonar, and a remotely operated vehicle brought to the site.
No evidence from the crash emerged in its immediate aftermath. Aerial searches and local fishing boats scouring the waters off Cape Breton found nothing - neither debris nor oil sheen - to indicate the fate of the missing eight-seat aircraft until last Saturday when a husband and wife out sailing near Scatarie Island, three kilometres off Main-a-Dieu on the eastern coast of Cape Breton, found two pieces of fuselage thought to be from a twin-engine plane .
The fuselage found Saturday was discovered about 20 kilometres south of the designated search area. A group searching the northern shoreline of Scatarie Island also found some aircraft documentation. The fuselage and human remains found later by the Preventor were found in the original search area.
Johnston, chief executive officer of Expander Energy Inc. in Calgary, was flying the Cessna 414 Alpha for passenger 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 earlier this month and hired Johnston to fly him to his native Cape Breton. The Cessna was built around 1979.
Both men were experienced pilots, but Johnston had more experience on the Cessna Alpha. Forgeron was a member of the Calgary Flying Club and Johnston was on its board of directors.
A special service of remembrance was held for Forgeron Aug. 13 at St. Joseph's Parish Church in North Sydney. St. Joseph's is part of the Roman Catholic diocese of Antigonish. Forgeron's family is from the small Cape Breton community of Main-a-Dieu, halfway between Sydney and Louisbourg.
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.
