PROSPECTS CAMP Jeff de Wit and Josh Mahura are projected to crack the Rebels roster for the 2014-15 season
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Red Deer Advocate WEEKEND EDITION SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 2014
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Missing plane mystery Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff
David Reynolds of Innisfail is determined to find the crash site of a plane that went down over Christmas in 1978. BY MURRAY CRAWFORD ADVOCATE STAFF It was supposed to be a Christmas in the Rockies for a Saskatchewan family. Chet and Betty Talbott and their son Sheldon left Indian Head in a Cessna 185 with experienced pilot Art Underwood at the helm on Dec. 23, 1978. They were headed out to 108 Mile House Ranch in British Columbia, just north of 100 Mile House. Their daughter Debbie was waiting for them there. Bad weather forced them to land at the Red Deer airport the evening of Dec. 23, and they spent the night in the city. They then took off the next day headed for Kamloops, B.C., to be followed by a drive to the ranch and a family Christmas. But they never made it. The plane and its occupants vanished. For more than two weeks a search and rescue operation scoured parts of the West Country in hopes of finding the remains of a crash site. The search and rescue team based out of Edmonton, then CFB Namao, logged about 1,100 hours flight time during the search, but the operation came up empty. Today, 35 years later, a Rimbey area resident at the time of the crash who now lives in Innisfail, believes he may know where the crash is and he wants to try to find it. Just 12 years old at the time, David Reynolds said Betty and Sheldon Talbott survived the crash and he communicated with Betty for two days after through walkie-talkies. Christmas has always been a difficult time for Reynolds, but for decades he never really knew why. But a couple of years ago, the memory of the crash, talking with Betty and the failure of finding the crash came back to haunt the now 47-year-old. With the help of his partner, Kayla Hart, he said he has slowly remembered details of the incident. Using walkie-talkies, Reynolds said he and his cousin heard a voice they didn’t expect on Christmas Eve. The voice identified herself as Betty Talbott. “We called the police and they came. My mother talked to them and somebody sent her to listen for
the black box beeping,” said Reynolds. “We did hear noise in the background.” The walkie-talkies they used came courtesy of Reynolds’ uncle as a Christmas present. They were discarded airline communication devices that were not being used. Reynolds’ cousin, Tracey Kerklaan of Red Deer, remembered that they were out playing with the walkie-talkies that day. “All of a sudden a distress thing came across our walkie-talkies,” said Kerklaan. “It was a woman freaking out saying that their plane had crashed, people were hurt and presumed dead and she needed help.
LONG BEFORE MALAYSIA AIRLINES FLIGHT MH370 VANISHED SOMEWHERE OVER THE SOUTHERN INDIAN OCEAN TO THE PUZZLEMENT OF EXPERTS, CENTRAL ALBERTA WAS DEALING WITH AN AVIATION MYSTERY OF ITS OWN. A CESSNA 185 CARRYING THREE PASSENGERS AND AN EXPERIENCED PILOT AT THE CONTROLS DISAPPEARED WITHOUT A TRACE ON A FLIGHT FROM RED DEER TO KAMLOOPS ON DEC. 24, 1978. THIRTY-FIVE YEARS LATER, DAVID REYNOLDS OF INNISFAIL BELIEVES HE KNOWS WHERE THE PLANE WENT DOWN
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“At first we thought this was weird, we were 12, and we kept communicating for a little bit and then we went and got (Reynolds’) mom, my Aunt Margaret, and told her.” Kerklaan said her aunt called the RCMP. She remembers the day as a clear, nice day for the middle of an Alberta winter. Reynolds said Betty told him that Sheldon was alive the first day they communicated, but he didn’t make it through that night.
Contributed illustration
This obituary was taken from the ‘History Book of Indian Head,’ available at www.culture.ca. It provides the family history of many former and current Indian Head residents.
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Moncton rallies around RCMP A man facing murder charges after three RCMP officers were gunned down in Moncton appeared briefly in court Friday. Story on PAGE A4
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