The wreckage of a Cessna 172S that crashed southeast of Chilliwack in April 2025, killing two people. (Image Credit: TSB Report)

By Fraser Valley Today staff

Two people killed

TSB releases the results of an investigation into an April 2025 fatal small plane crash southeast of Chilliwack

Mar 18, 2026 | 11:22 AM

CHILLIWACK — Canada’s Transportation Safety Board (TSB) has released its report on a fatal training flight that killed two people last April east of Chilliwack. The small plane crashed in mountainous terrain, killing the pilot and lone passenger.

The TSB report says a Cessna 172S operated by Chinook Helicopters Ltd. departed Abbotsford Airport at about 12:30 p.m. on April 5, 2025. The training flight took the aircraft east towards the Chilliwack River Valley and then disappeared from radar about nine minutes later. The plane struck the side of a mountain in a remote valley east-southeast of the Chilliwack Airport, killing both occupants. The TSB says weather conditions were not a factor in the crash and did not identify any issues with components of the aircraft.

The report suggests the plane was attempting to conduct a canyon turn in the valley when it crashed. It says the available flight data indicated several best practices for mountain flying were not completely executed.

Investigators were left with several unanswered questions through their examination. They couldn’t explain why the flight instructor failed to file a flight plan or why an electronic dispatch entry was started but not completed. A whiteboard, which was used as a backup to the dispatch system, indicated the flight would take place in the Sumas practice area. However, the flight path revealed the plane travelled through the area and went a further 20 nautical miles east.

It also found that mountain flying procedures were conducted during the flight, which had not been reportedly discussed during the pre-flight briefing. 

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Following the crash, Chinook Helicopters took several actions to improve training safety, including flight simulator training for instructors, which focused on flights in mountains. It also provided additional maps of mountainous training areas for flight instructors, and required them to be completed ahead of training flights.

The TSB says the role of the report is not to assign fault or liability but rather to advance transportation safety.