Former Alberta Premier Jim Prentice was among four people killed in a small plane crash near Winfield B.C. Thursday night.

The 60-year-old was on a plane that had left the Kelowna aiport headed to Springbank.

Former Foothills MP, Ted Menzies, was good friends with Prentice as the two served together on Parliament Hill for many years.

Prentice served as premier from September of 2014 when he won the PC leadership to May of 2015 when his party was defeated in the provincial election.

Former local MP Ted Mezies says Prentice, besides being the leader of our province for a short time, he was one of the stronest leaders im the country for a long time.

"The man's going to be missed, he was an incredible family man , that's what I remember about Jim, we're all going to miss him," Menzies says. "He's a friend of ours, Sandy and I knew him from the 80's, we were friends with the Prentice's so yes it's very upsetting."

Menzies says he feels the worst for Prentice's wife Karen and his girls, who he says "just adored him".

"We need to remember what he contributed to our country, what he contributed to our province and what he brought as a gentleman and to poilitics and to the law profession," Menzies says. "He was always a stateman and always a gentleman."

Menzies says he was a very effective hands-on Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and did a great deal of work for the Treaty Seven nations even before he got into politics.