A pilot was killed Sunday morning when the small airplane he was flying crashed several kilometres outside Port Hope Simpson. A pilot was killed Sunday morning when the small airplane he was flying crashed several kilometres outside Port Hope Simpson. (RCMP)

Fog may have played a role in a crash in which a pilot was killed minutes before he was to land in a Labrador community to pick up an ailing passenger.

The twin-engine Britten-Norman Islander crashed into a hillside about six kilometres outside of Port Hope Simpson, on Labrador's south coast. The area was blanketed in fog at the time.

RCMP on Monday identified the pilot as James Joseph Hudson, 43, of L'Anse au Loup. Police said his body was being flown to St. John's for an autopsy.

A pilot was killed Sunday when his small airplane crashed near Port Hope Simpson.

Hudson was the only person on board at the time. He was heading to the community to pick up a patient waiting for emergency transport to the hospital in St. Anthony, on Newfoundland's Northern Peninsula.

Lt. Al Blondin, who works with the military search and rescue co-ordination centre in Halifax, said just as ground crews lost contact with the airplane, people in the community noticed the first sign of the crash.

"As visibility improved, from Port Hope they were actually able to see a plume of smoke in the distance," he said.

RCMP Sgt. Wayne Newell said Hudson and a ground crew had been discussing foggy conditions in the final minutes of the flight.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada will be investigating the case.

Canadian Rangers hiked several kilometres to reach the site. A military helicopter arrived on the scene and took the body of the pilot to Happy Valley-Goose Bay.

Labrador-Grenfell Health, the authority that had chartered the plane, arranged for another plane to come for the patient in Port Hope Simpson.

The plane was owned by Strait Air, which is based out of L'Anse au Clair. The owner said Hudson had been with the company for two years, but had about 15 years of flying experience.

Labrador-Grenfell Health chief executive officer Boyd Rowe said it is not unusual for the authority to use outside companies to provide medical evacuation.

"We've made arrangements with that particular company a number of times," he said.

"This particular aircraft, as far as we know, was equipped with the appropriate medevac equipment to deal with this particular case."

The aircraft wreckage is being secured until TSB officials can arrive in Port Hope Simpson.