Very sad news. Condolences to the family and colleagues.
Full story
Pilot was planning move to Australia Blaze surrounds site of Bonaparte Lake helicopter crash
Christina Toth
CanWest News Service
Helicopter pilot Ben von Hardenberg, 33, of Mission, shown in a family photo, died Sunday while fighting a forest fire near 100 Mile House. He was working his last of five days on contract to a private company.
A 33-year-old Mission helicopter pilot who died Sunday while fighting a forest fire near 100 Mile House was getting ready to marry and start a new career in Australia next month.
Ben von Hardenberg was piloting a Bell helicopter when it crashed about 11 a.m. Sunday near the Bonaparte Lake fire, 80 kilometres east of 100 Mile House, RCMP media liaison officer Corporal Pierre Lemaitre said.
"Witnesses tell us that they saw the helicopter bank and attempt to come back to the staging area and they lost sight of him on the horizon and then saw smoke," said Lemaitre.
Clinton RCMP officers attempted to get to the crash site but the area was engulfed in flames. Efforts to retrieve von Hardenberg's body continued Monday.
Sunday was the last day of a five-day stint van Hardenberg was contracted to fly for Gemini Helicopters of Grande Prairie, his older brother Konrad said.
"When it comes to fire season, the pilots go wherever the need is greatest. Ben had just finished a tour in Saskatchewan and in Ontario, then he had five days there. Sunday was his last day," said von Hardenberg.
Ben was preparing to be married in two weeks and to move to Australia next month, said his brother.
The youngest of six boys, Ben grew up on his parents' Dewdney dairy farm and went to school at Dewdney elementary and Hatzic secondary schools.
His introduction to helicopters came when a pilot was practising in the dairy pastures.
His brother Fred went for a ride, was smitten and became a pilot. Ben followed suit, taking his first instruction at the Abbotsford-based flight school Chinook Helicopters.
He had booked time there Monday to take his night-flying certificate for small craft, a requirement for his upcoming job as a base manager north of Brisbane, Australia.
"He was a very successful and excellent pilot," said Cathy Press, an owner and instructor at Chinook.
"Everybody here is really shocked. He was a very nice guy," she said.
Ben had worked for TransWest Helicopters in Chilliwack but in the past year flew on a contract basis for various companies, said Konrad.
He had also worked as a heli-logging pilot.