News
Safety
Man, 57, killed in plane crash
July 13, 2021 By Jessica Munro, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Brockville Recorder and Times
A 57-year-old man was killed when the plane he was piloting crashed near Athens Saturday morning (July 10).
Robert Kerr, of the Township of Leeds and the Thousand Islands, was pronounced dead at the scene, provincial police reported.
Leeds County Ontario Provincial Police officers responded to the scene of a small-plane crash at approximately 10:45 a.m. The single-engine plane wreck was located near a residence on Lower Oak Leaf Road, in Athens Township.
Two patients were reported to be in the plane. The passenger was taken to hospital by Leeds and Grenville paramedics with non-life-threatening injuries, said police.
Officials at the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, which has taken over the investigation, said that, shortly after the Tundra basic ultralight aircraft took off from a private grass strip, it collided with terrain in a swampy area.
Two Transportation Safety Board investigators were deployed to the scene on Saturday and returned on Sunday. Some of the plane’s components were removed and taken to the regional office for further examination.
As of Monday afternoon, it was too early to determine the cause of the collision, said safety board spokesman Dean Campbell.
Leeds County OPP officers and the force’s technical support team took part in the initial investigation.
