Pilot flying Prentice was likely disoriented

Former Alberta premier died in 2016 plane crash along with three others

OTTAWA— The pilot at the controls of a light jet that crashed with former Alberta premier Jim Prentice on board lacked the required proficiency in night flying and likely became disoriented soon after takeoff, investigators said Thursday.

However, because the Cessna Citation jet was not equipped with flight recorders, nor was it required to be, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said the true cause of the crash that killed Prentice and three others will never be known for sure.

“We have no detailed sequence of what went on in the flight deck. All we have is a hypothesis, a scenario that doesn’t have enough facts to be definitive … That simply isn’t good enough,” Kathy Fox, chair of the safety board, said Thursday.

In a final report into the crash released Thursday, the board urged the mandatory installation of lightweight flight re- corders on aircraft not currently required to carry them.

Such devices record key flight information, cockpit conversations and communications with air traffic control, providing investigations with a wealth of data in the event of an accident. But in Canada, only multiengine, turbine-powered commercial aircraft flown by two pilots and carrying six or more passengers must be equipped with such recorders.

The board also called on Transport Canada to step up oversight of the business aviation sector. The safety board found no record that the operator of the aircraft had ever been inspected.

The death of Prentice, a cabinet minister in Stephen Harper’s government and then Alberta premier, sent shock waves through Canada’s political scene.

Prentice and the others were travelling home to Calgary on Oct.13, 2016 from Kelowna. The jet disappeared off the radar with no emergency calls. Searchers discovered the crash scene about 11 kilometres north of the airport. The aircraft had been destroyed by the impact.