Ontario Provincial Police say one person is dead after two small planes collided in the air in southeastern Ontario on Saturday at approximately 11 a.m.
According to OPP, the planes collided above Martintown in South Glengarry, which is approximately 100 kilometres southeast of downtown Ottawa.
One of the planes, a Piper Seminole with two pilots, landed safely. The other, a Cessna 172, was located in a wooded area and the pilot, its lone occupant, a 28-year-old man from Île-Bizard, Que., was found dead.
“After the mid-air collision, the Piper Seminole was able to land safely at Cornwall airport. However, one of the wings separated from the Cessna and the aircraft crashed in the woods,” senior investigator of Transportation Safety Board of Canada Jean-Pierre Régnie told CTV News Ottawa.
Régnie says the two planes were owned and operated by Cornwall Aviation and were conducting training flights at the time of the collision.
Cornwall SDG Paramedics say the Cessna 172 departed from the Cornwall-Summerstown Regional Airport. Paramedics say a Search and Rescue technician parachuted to the scene.
It’s not clear yet what caused the crash, but the Transportation Safety Board of Canada say they are investigating.
“We will gather information from obviously both pilots, any other witnesses. We will gather weather information, radar information from NAV Canada, and will bring that all back together to try to reconstruct the timeline the sequence of events to be able to figure out what happened and why,” Régnie said.
‘Did I just see something?’
Glen Finbow was in the area opening his business at the time of the incident and says he saw the Cessna falling from the sky.
“I had just finished feeding my alpacas, got to the end of the road to put the sign out and I heard a pop, a bang,” Finbow said. “From there, I turned towards Chapel Road and I saw what looked like a Piper or something coming straight down with one wing missing.”
Immediately after witnessing the incident, Finbow called 9-1-1, advising them to send all the emergency services they could. Finbow then went to help locate the downed aircraft.
“I spent 45 minutes in the bush with a couple of paramedics and firemen walking, trying to work our way through the bush to find the wreckage but we were unsuccessful. But they found it down the 25, I guess a little bit farther,” he said.
At least two others witnessed the incident, Finbow says, and he’s been in contact with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.
“We all gathered on Chapel Road and were all saying ‘did you see that?’ And I’m thinking ‘did I just see something?’” he said.
Finbow says he’s been left feeling “bent out of shape” after witnessing the tragic incident.
“So many planes are around here all the time and you never see anything but just to know that somebody is going to die and you’re watching it, I’m going to have a hard time sleeping tonight,” Finbow said.
A section of County Road 25 was closed following the incident, but has since reopened.
With files from CTV’s Natalie van Rooy.
