Pilot likely disoriented in Prentice crash

The Transportation Safety Board says the pilot of a plane that crashed, killing former Alberta premier Jim Prentice, was probably disoriented while flying in the dark, but investigators will never know for sure because the aircraft didn’t have flight recorders.

The Cessna Citation jet went down shortly after takeoff from Kelowna, B.C., on its way to the Springbank airport west of Calgary in October 2016.

The plane took off about 9:30 p.m. and shortly after took a steep descending right turn and hit the ground from 2,580 metres above sea level.

The safety board says the “most plausible scenario’’ is that pilot Jim Kruk became spatially disoriented because he had a lot to do at the controls.Kruk, a retired RCMP officer, optometrist Ken Gellatly, the father-in-law of one of Prentice’s three daughters and Calgary businessman Sheldon Reid all died with Prentice.

“The most plausible scenario is that the pilot, who was likely dealing with a high workload associated with flying the aircraft alone, experienced spatial disorientation and departed from controlled flight shortly after takeoff,’’ the TSB said in a release issued ahead of a news conference in Calgary.

The investigation also determined that the pilot did not have enough experience flying after dark.