Missing plane from Ontario discovered after 40 days: Details explored

The missing plane from Ontario, which took off from Delhi, Ont., but never arrived at its destination, was discovered Saturday in Lake Superior Provincial Park, about two kilometers east of Old Women's Bay.

The Piper Comanche plane had been missing since April 14, when it took off from Delhi Airport in Norfolk County and was scheduled to land in Marathon, Ontario.

The radar of the missing plane from Ontario and other flight tracking equipment was last detected about 60 kilometers north of Sault Ste. Marie.

Crews conducted a lengthy aerial search for the missing plane. However, the search operation was hampered by inclement weather and deep snow.

On Saturday, a civilian helicopter and an OPP Aviation Services helicopter conducted follow-up searches in Lake Superior Provincial Park.

The civilian helicopter located the crash site around 5 p.m., and OPP responded. The plane was discovered in the same area where teams had spent 10 days searching for it.

The Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the collision. The Ontario Provincial Police have not released any information about the two men aboard the plane.

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What happened to the missing plane from Ontario?

John Fehr and Brian Slingerland were on board a Piper Comanche that took off from Delhi in southern Ontario at 3:45 p.m. on April 4destined for the Marathon, near Thunder Bay.

According to reports, the Ontario Information Centre in London reported the plane missing about three hours later. Trevor Reid of the Trenton-based Joint Rescue Coordination Centre.

The search effort, launched at 8 p.m. on Thursday, involved over 100 military, coast guard, and civilian searches and coordination and support staff. In this regard, officials said:

"Right now, our top priority is to locate this aeroplane and the two people on board,"

Fehr's sister, Mary Reimer, identified the two men in a series of Facebook posts, stating they were on their route to Alberta on a recently purchased plane.

“They made it to somewhere around Wawa, Ont., when their signal was lost,” Reimer wrote. “We are scared and so worried to say the least. If you’re a praying person, please help us pray that they would be found safely.”

The search was centered roughly 60 kilometers north of Sault Ste. Marie, where the plane was last seen. The search for the missing plane was conducted mainly by air.

There were no results from electronic searches for Comanche's emergency locator transmitter. Several parameters, including height, direction, and lighting conditions, were used to search for the missing plane in the Ontario region multiple times.

More than 6 planes looked for the missing plane from Ontario, including four helicopters and a CC130H Hercules plane. Some aircraft have Civil Air Search and Rescue Association members functioning as spotters.