The single engine plane landed briefly at British Columbia’s Cranbrook airport in June 2017. Its Canadian pilot, Alex Simons, and his girlfriend, Sydney Robillard, had stopped to refuel the Piper Warrior, a rented plane popular for training, before continuing west-ward. After struggling to get payment approved for the fuel, the couple were warned flying conditions over a nearby mountain range were rapidly deteriorating as a storm set in.
But Simons, with less than 100 hours
