Mysteries of Ontario plane crash probed

Investigators in two provinces are trying to figure out how two young Richmond pilots and two B.C. fugitives with links to murder victims ended up together in a small plane that crashed in the Ontario wilderness April 29.

Ontario Provincial Police are leading the criminal investigation into the crash of a B.C.-owned plane that left a Delta airport just before 6 p.m. on April 23, according to an online flight tracker.

Aboard the four-seater Piper aircraft was accused killer Gene Lahrkamp of Trail, accused conspirator Duncan Bailey of Kamloops, and Richmond pilots Abhi Handa and Hankun Hong.

The OPP released Hong 's name on Wednesday, a day after identifying the other victims as the two accused criminals and Handa, who was flying the ill-fated plane.

Neither Hong, 27, nor Handa, 26, have any criminal history in B.C. Nor does the owner of the four-seat Piper aircraft, who has not responded to messages left for her over two days.

Bailey is alleged to have conspired to kill Mir Aali Hussain in Vancouver in October 2020. Hussain was wounded in a targeted shooting, but survived. He was killed months later in Coquitlam.

B.C.'s anti-gang agency, the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, is looking at what, if any, links existed between Bailey and Lahrkamp.

Bailey is associated with the Independent Soldiers gang, which is part of the Wolfpack gang alliance. Lahrkamp, a former Canadian soldier, was alleged to have travelled to Thailand in February to execute former B.C. criminal Jimi Sandhu, of the United Nations gang.

Both the Independent Soldiers and the Wolfpack are rivals of the UN.