News
Seneca College students, flight instructor killed in plane crash
Nov. 19, 2010, Pickering, Ont. - Transportation Safety Board officials will try to determine what caused a small-plane crash that killed a Seneca College flight instructor and two students.
November 19, 2010 By The Canadian Press
Police say the plane was on a training flight Thursday night and was returning to Buttonville airport, just north of Toronto.
The single-engine, four-seater Beech 33 went down in a field north of Pickering near Highway 407. The crash left wreckage strewn across the area.
“It’s devastating, it is just unbelievable how much carnage there is there. It’s a sad sight,” Durham Regional Police Inspector Jamie Grant said.
Sergeant Nancy van Rooy said a police helicopter was sent out after the plane disappeared from radar around 7 p.m. ET.
She said it’s “too early to tell” what caused the crash.
An air ambulance crew found the three occupants – the male instructor, a male student and a female student – had died at the scene.
Seneca expressed “great sadness” in a press release that said the trio died during a “standard night flying exercise near Pickering.”
The victims’ names are being withheld until family members are notified.
“Seneca extends its deepest condolences and sympathy to the families involved. Counselling services are being extended to students and employees,” the statement says.
