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Cessna nearly hits condo at B.C. resort

A pilot and his lone passenger are lucky to be alive after their small plane narrowly missed slamming nose-first into a condo when it crashed near Penticton, B.C.

PENTICTON, B.C. — A pilot and his lone passenger are lucky to be alive after their small plane narrowly missed slamming nose-first into a condo when it crashed near Penticton, B.C.

The Cessna 172 went down shortly after noon Friday, resting between some trees at the Apex Mountain Ski Resort.

The condominium owners were not home at the time because most of the people in the complex are seasonal residents.

“I didn’t think about it (dying) until maybe a second before the impact,” said the pilot, who didn’t want his name published.

“My focus was to keep the plane in the air,” he said. “We were fortunate that the nose of the plane did not directly impact the trees or the side of the building.”

The RCMP say the pilot, a 35-year old-Kelowna man, and his passenger, a 28-year-old man from Thornhill, Ont., suffered only some bruises and sore muscles.

Police and aviation authorities are investigating the cause of the crash.