On June 6, 2020, a Cessna 172M, CF-CCV, belonging to a Vancouver-area flight school went missing within the boundaries of Metro Vancouver. It has yet to be found.

The aircraft belongs to International Flight Centre, based at Vancouver/Boundary Bay airport (CZBB) in Delta, British Columbia, and was carrying a flight instructor and a student when it went missing during the early afternoon flight last month.

According to the Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the incident, radar contact was lost when the aircraft was travelling eastward at 80 knots 200 feet over the Fraser River abeam the eastern part of Maple Ridge, less than a kilometre outside of Glen Valley, a designated flight training area (CYA 188).

At the time of the incident, there was a witness report of an aircraft entering the water in the same vicinity. However, searches conducted by Search and Rescue authorities and private individuals have so far turned up nothing.

This very stretch of Fraser River was also the site of an aircraft accident in 2004 when renowned West Coast painter Toni Onley perished after he crashed his Lake Buccaneer amphibious aircraft while performing touch-and-go manoeuvres.

Image credit: Google Earth