Aircraft’s distress call not credible, says military

MEDICINE HAT — 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 is likely false.

Early Sunday evening, Maple Creek RCMP received a call from a crew, working about 25 minutes southeast of Maple Creek, who heard muffled audio of a “Mayday call” over their hand-held radio in their vehicle, according to an RCMP release issued Monday.

It was learned there were three possible locations a distressed plane would attempt to land, including two near Maple Creek and one near Medicine Hat, Alta.

According to Medicine Hat police, it received information about the call at 7:30 p.m.

“Medicine Hat was named as the possible location that the distressed plane would attempt to land, specifically the Trans-Canada Highway,” says its release. As a precaution, the highway was closed between Redcliff and Dunmore for about an hour 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.”

Police say all logged commercial and smaller planes were accounted for, but haven’t ruled out the possibility that an unlogged aircraft may have been in distress.

In its release Monday, the Mounties asked that anyone with information about the incident or spotting any signs of a downed aircraft contact Maple Creek RCMP at 306-662-5550.