A flight instructor and two students were killed when the small plane they were riding in crashed in a cornfield in north Pickering Thursday night.
The plane belonged to a flight school operated by Seneca College. It was on a training flight returning to Buttonville airport. Officials say he had been cleared to return and land at Buttonville.
The plane went down some time after 7 p.m. near Whitevale Road, south of Highway 407.
Officials with Pearson International Airport called police after the plane went off radar and all radio communication was lost. A Durham police helicopter found the wreckage in a rural area, just off of 5th concession road, about 1 kilometre into the field.
The wreckage was reportedly scattered across the field.
The plane is a four-seater, single engine beech 33 aircraft.
The two men and one woman that were on the plane were all said to be "young," according to Durham police Insp. Jamie Grant. Officers at the scene described it as a "devastating, tragic accident."
The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the incident and try to determine what caused the plane to crash.
