A West Vancouver pilot who died in a bush plane crash Sunday evening was experienced and passionate about flying, a friend said this week.
Colin Moyes was flying his private de Havilland Beaver back from Kelowna with two passengers Sunday when the single-engine aircraft crashed into a steep hillside next to Highway 97C in the Okanagan and burst into flames.
All three people onboard were killed.
Safety investigators are now examining debris from the crash site to determine what caused the plane to go down.
Friend Dale Floyd, who operates Coast Dog Aviation at Pitt Meadows airport, said Moyes loved flying and "he was out at the airport every chance he got.
"When the weather was good, he was out almost every day." Moyes - a businessman in his early 50s - owned two airplanes, an amphibious Cessna and the Beaver, which he'd only purchased a few months ago.
"As far as a private pilot goes, he was fairly experienced," said Floyd, who was out flying with Moyes in the Beaver just a couple of weeks ago.
"I flew Beavers for a living, and Colin was handling the airplane just fine," he said.
Floyd said everyone at Pitt Meadows Airport where Moyes kept his planes is shocked and saddened by his death. "He was a good friend to all of us," he said. "It's like anytime when you lose a good friend. It hurts."
Bill Yearwood, regional manager for the Transportation Safety Board, said investigators are still looking for clues to the cause of the crash.
Moyes had left Pitt Meadows for Kelowna with three passengers on board earlier that afternoon. Yearwood said it appears Moyes landed on the water - possibly Okanagan Lake - and dropped one of those passengers off before heading back to Pitt Meadows with the others at around 6 p.m. Sunday night.
About 20 minutes later, witnesses driving on Highway 97C reported seeing a plane flying low over the area, near the summit of the pass. One witness said he saw the plane turn before it crashed into a wooded hillside and burst into flames.
The extensive fire that followed the crash burned much of the wreckage, making the investigation more difficult, said Yearwood. Investigators will try to determine why the plane was flying so low over the terrain, he said, and whether the Beaver still had engine power when it crashed.
"It was a clear day," he said. "But that doesn't mean it's good for flying close in the mountains" where updrafts and downdrafts can affect planes.
A full investigation is expected to take several months.
Yearwood said Beavers have been a mainstay of floatplane operations for more than 50 years and are generally considered reliable.
Floyd said friends will wait for the accident report.
"Right now everybody can have an opinion but it's all speculation," he said. "We'll just wait and see what the TSB comes out with."
The names of the other two people on board had not been released by press time.
