Midair collision kills 5 in Saskatchewan
CBC News
Posted: May 12, 2012 3:37 PM CST
Last Updated: May 12, 2012 8:01 PM CST
Two private planes carrying five people collided northeast of Saskatoon on Saturday, killing everyone on board, RCMP have confirmed.
Officers from the RCMP's Wakaw detachment said they were called at 8:50 a.m. CST to investigate a report of a plane crash.
In Regina, Cpl. Rob King told reporters later that officers were responding to the first 911 call about a plane crash in the area when they came across debris from another plane and confirmed with air traffic officials that two planes had dropped from radar.
"Our underwater recovery team is on the scene … trying to recover the bodies from the planes," King said, adding Transport Canada officials were expected to arrive on scene Sunday.
One of the 911 calls came from Jackie Mark and her mother, who were having coffee and looking out the window when they saw a plane fall. They drove toward the scene and about a kilometre from their home they found a piece of wreckage on the road.One of the planes was a Piper PA-28, which had been flying to St. Brieux from Calgary; the other plane was a Lake Buccaneer amphibious plane, according to Capt. Robert Landriault at the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Trenton, Ont.
RCMP said the Piper had three people aboard, two men and a young male.
The amphibious plane was flying to La Ronge, in Saskatchewan's north, from Regina. That plane had two people on board, an adult male and an adult female.
RCMP said they have contacted family members, but said they did not yet have permission to release any names of the deceased.
With files from The Canadian PressShare Tools
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