Naturalist Charlie Russell was reported to have crash landed on the Piikani Nation in Southern Alberta Shortly after stopping in Drumheller.
Some residents may have noticed the uncanny buzz of a Rotax engine, or a tiny ultralight swooping over downtown on Wednesday afternoon.
It was just the Bear Man of Kamchatka.
A couple years ago residents may have heard Charlie Russell speak when a screening of the documentary "Edge of Eden" was presented at the Royal Tyrrell Museum. This time his stop was quite a bit briefer.
The Piikani Nation RCMP issued a press release last Friday that an ultralight aircraft with one occupant crash landed on the reserve. The site was three kilometres south of Highway 3 in an empty field. The pilot was able to walk away from the crash to a nearby residence to get assistance.
Cst. Forrest Anderson of the Piikani Nation RCMP said that the pilot’s injuries were non-life threatening, but did not release his name. The Pincher Creek Voice reported the pilot was Russell.
On Wednesday afternoon, he touched down his Kolb Mark 3 ultralight aircraft with a float on the Red Deer River for a break.
Russell was coming from Wood Buffalo National Park enroute to his home near Waterton. He was in Northern Alberta working with the BBC and the CBC on a documentary on wolf predation on buffalo.
His flights in the tiny craft were not only for commuting, but also, during filming, he would go up and spot for the film crew before they would fire up their considerably more expensive helicopter and filming equipment to shoot a scene.
His stop in Drumheller was for fuel. Jes Nielsen, who lives alongside the Red Deer River, met Russell earlier this year on another stopover. Now when he hears the buzz of Russell’s plane he heads down and picks up the pilot to give him a quick lift to a gas station for fuel, saving him from lugging an armful of jerry cans to the nearest filling station.
Around 4:30 p.m., Russell was taxiing down the river, hoping to get home before dark. RCMP reports said he encountered bad weather on his commute. The Transportation Safety Board has been notified of the incident and the cause of the crash is still under investigation.
