Reported distress call by plane not true: Air Force

MEDICINE HAT, Alta. — The military says a report of an aircraft distress call that prompted officials to close part of the Trans-Canada Highway in Alberta for a possible emergency landing has turned out to be false.

Medicine Hat police say a radio operator reported hearing a plane calling for help Sunday night in the region.

As a precaution police closed part of the highway from about 7:30 p.m. until 8:50 p.m. for use as a makeshift landing strip.

But authorities could not make contact with any pilot and there were no reports of a missing plane.

The Royal Canadian Air Force scrambled a CC-130 Hercules search and rescue aircraft out of Winnipeg to investigate.

“It was assumed it was a real call. At the end of it all there was nothing credible about the call,” Capt. Wright Eruebi, a military spokesman, said Monday.

He said military search and rescue officials always investigate such calls.

“When we receive these calls we investigate them. We don’t assume that it is false,” he said. “We assume that every call is authentic and that a Canadian life is in danger.”

Saskatchewan RCMP say a work crew near Maple Creek heard muffled audio of a “Mayday call” over their handheld radio and called police.

Mounties said all logged commercial and smaller planes have been accounted for, but it is possible that an unlogged aircraft may have been in distress.

RCMP say an investigation by Mounties and Medicine Hat police hasn’t found any evidence of a missing or downed plane.

Police are asking the public to report any signs of a downed aircraft.