Search on for two men flying over Wawa area (update)

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story referred to John Fehr as John Reimer.

Update

The Canadian Armed Forces has confirmed a search is underway for a small plane reported overdue since Thursday evening.

Two people were on board when the aircraft had taken off from Delhi, Ont. around 3:45 p.m. that afternoon. The missing individuals were on their way to Marathon before the London Flight Information Centre reported the plane overdue.

Major Trevor Reid, Senior Public Affairs Officer with the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre out of Trenton, confirmed this information to SooToday, and says rescue efforts to find the two missing individuals are underway.

“At this time, search efforts are focused on an area approximately 60 kilometres north of Sault Ste. Marie,” Reid says. “Since Thursday evening, poor weather and heavy snow on the ground has made search efforts challenging.”

Reid says the rescue team has conducted electronic searches, but they have not been successful to this point.

“At the moment, we have an RCAF CC130H Hercules airplane, a CH-146 Griffon helicopter and a CH-149 Cormorant helicopter involved in the search,” Reid says. “We also have an OPP helicopter and a Canadian Coast Guard helicopter supporting. Members of the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association are embarked on some aircraft as spotters.”

Two men have gone missing after their flight lost signal over the Wawa area Thursday night, according to a Facebook post. 

Original story

A search team was dispatched Friday evening to search for the pilot, Brian Slingerland, and his friend, John Fehr. The search continued into Saturday, but poor visibility conditions have made the pursuit to locate their whereabouts a challenging one, says the post.

According to the post’s author, Mary Reimer, who is John’s sister, the two were flying from Ontario to Alberta. The post does not indicate where Slingerland or Reimer are from.

We will update this story as more information becomes available. 

Reimer’s original post reads:

My brother John and his pilot friend were enroute from Ontario to Alberta in a recently purchased airplane. They made it to somewhere around Wawa Ontario when their signal was lost. They are missing since yesterday evening. We are putting together a search team and they will driving out tonight yet to search all day tomorrow. The weather conditions were not good last night and today is no better. Visibility is very poor. So helicopters have not been able to search properly yet. 

We are scared and so worried to say the least. If your a praying person please help us pray that they would be found safely.