Plane carried drugs, TSB investigator says

Globe and Mail
Vernon -- A plane that crashed near Vernon killing one man was carrying drugs said Bill Yearwood of the Transportation Safety Board. The origin and destination of the plane is unknown and the pilot did not file a flight plan, he said.The plane went down in a heavily forested area on the west side of Okanagan Lake last night.The Piper Cherokee was owned by YKA Flight Discovery Ltd., a Kamloops flight school.

CBC NEWS Downed B.C. plane loaded with cocaine
The RCMP say they found 109 kilograms of cocaine in a small plane that crashed on the west side of Okanagan Lake on Tuesday night. The pilot was killed when his aircraft went down in a heavily forested mountainous area 23 kilometres southwest of Vernon. There were no passengers. Vernon RCMP Staff-Sgt. Carlson said police were suspicious because the pilot had not filed a flight plan for the night trip. "No flight plan was available or booked from this aircraft, so we don't know where it was coming from or where it was destined to. Obviously, it didn't reach its destination." Carlson said it's quite common for drug traffickers to fly small aircraft over remote areas at night. Police also note the crash happened in an area where there have been ongoing concerns about light planes and helicopters being involved in drug smuggling across the Canada-U.S. border.