Police have released the names of two B.C. men killed in a small-plane crash south of Edmonton on Friday.

Dean Sorken, 45, and his brother Lee Sorken, 39, were flying from Kelowna, B.C., to Killam, Alta., to attend a family wedding when their small plane disappeared from radar late Friday night.

The plane went down in a farmer's field north of Stettler, Alta., just minutes from its final destination. The four-seat aircraft was found in flames and "completely destroyed," according to police.

Trevor Sorken, a cousin of the victims, spent much of the day Saturday at the crash site aiding in the recovery of the wreck and bodies.

"I wanted to be out there for the family," he said. He said the brothers were both very skilled pilots who grew up around airplanes.

"They do a lot of flying," he said. "All of our hometown is Killam and they're out in B.C., so they do a lot of flying back and forth to keep in touch, and Dean would quite often fly to wherever he could go."

Died doing what they loved

Sorken described his cousins as career-focused men who knew how to have a good time.

"They're well known as fun-loving guys, two single guys full of energy and full of life, easygoing," he said. "They liked to laugh and could be the life of the party, so to speak."

The family is holding up "as best as can be expected," Sorken said, and the brothers will be "missed by a lot of people."

"They died doing what they truly loved, flying … and on their way to see family," he said. "So it's tragic, but if they had to go there's no better way for them unfortunately to have to go."

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is investigating. Police said weather at the time was light, with some wet snow and rain reported.