Ontario Provincial Police confirmed Wednesday (Aug. 19) that the body of a missing 73-year-old Oshawa pilot had been recovered from Wolf Lake near Minden.
Search efforts for David Douglas had been underway since Friday (Aug. 14). Military personnel spent three days scouring forested areas around Haliburton and Peterborough counties and the Kawartha Lakes, looking for signs of a home-built blue and yellow aircraft Douglas flew out of Oshawa Executive Airport around 8:30 a.m.
Durham Regional Police said the pilot was heading north towards the Balsam Lake area and was expected back around an hour later. When he didn’t arrive, a search began, with the military deploying its Lockheed C-130 Hercules over the weekend. Debris from the plane was located on Monday (Aug. 17) near Wolf Lake.
In a post to social media on Tuesday morning, the joint rescue coordination centre (JRCC) out of Trenton confirmed their work had ended with the matter now becoming a search and rescue investigation, led by the OPP.
Officers with the Kawartha Lakes detachment assisted with the search, as well as the underwater search and recovery unit (USRU), aviation services and other partners to extensively search the area.
After recovering debris on Tuesday, police said they located the rest of the missing plane submerged in Wolf Lake later that day. They confirmed the pilot’s body had also been found. As of Wednesday, an extraction plan was being co-ordinated by investigators.
The incident is now being investigated by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, the independent federal agency responsible for advancing the country’s transportation safety policies and legislation. Police said they will continue to assist as required.
