Report into plane crash that killed former Alberta premier Jim Prentice to be released today

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is set to release its report on the plane crash that killed former Alberta premier Jim Prentice and three other people.

Transportation Safety Board of Canada to announce results of its 18-month investigation

Robson Fletcher · CBC News ·
Former Alberta premier Jim Prentice died in a plane crash on Oct. 13, 2016 that also took the lives of his friends Dr. Ken Gellatly, businessman Sheldon Reid, and pilot Jim Kruk. (Handouts)

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is set to release its report on the plane crash that killed former Alberta premier Jim Prentice and three other people.

The TSB plans to hold a news conference in Calgary today, where it will announce the findings of its investigation into the October 2016 crash.

  • CBC News will livestream the news conference online starting at 10 a.m. MT / noon ET

Prentice was killed, along with his friends Dr. Ken Gellatly, businessman Sheldon Reid, and pilot Jim Kruk when the Citation 500 aircraft ​they were travelling crashed shortly after takeoff from Kelowna, B.C.

They were en route to the Springbank Airport near Calgary.

Overview of Cessna Citation wreckage showing landing gear (TSB)

The plane, which was built in 1974, was not equipped with a cockpit voice recorder or a flight data recorder. Neither is a requirement for that type of aircraft.

The aircraft disappeared from radar at 9:40 p.m. PT on Oct. 13, 2016, about 11 kilometres north of the Kelowna Airport.

There were no emergency or distress calls made, according to the TSB's initial investigation.

The plane "was destroyed from high deceleration forces after a vertical descent," Beverley Harvey, the TSB's investigator-in-charge, said at the time.

Investigators planned to review any electronic components that could give them clues as to the cause of the crash.

Prentice, 60, was also a former federal cabinet minister.

He became premier of Alberta in September 2014 after winning the leadership of the province's governing Progressive Conservative party.

He quit politics in May 2015 after the NDP swept the PCs from power.