The names of the two people from Regina who died after two small planes collided midair on the weekend, killing all five aboard, have been identified.

According to an online obituary posted on saskobits.com, Joy Jackson, 57, and Eric Jackson, 60, were from the Saskatchewan capital.

Their northbound plane, a Lake Buccaneer, left Regina en route to La Ronge, while the other plane, an eastbound Piper PA-28 Cherokee, came from Alberta.

The three other victims, who were headed for St. Brieux, Sask., just east of where the crash happened, are:

• Eric Donovan, 38, a grain truck driver, and his son Wade, 11, of Mossleigh, Alta.
• Pilot Denny Loree, a farmer in his 50s from Nanton, Alta.

Eric Jackson was a member of the Regina Flying Club and had his pilot's licence for about a year, according to club spokesman Tom Ray.

"He had his own private aircraft, the Lake Buccaneer," Ray said. "He did come in quite regularly. He had a couple friends in the back that he'd have coffee with on a regular basis."

Meanwhile, searchers in the St. Brieux area, about 175 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon, spent Monday looking for the remains of the victims.

Officials with the Transportation Safety Board, who have confirmed it was a midair crash between the two planes, were also on the scene trying to figure out what happened.

They're still recovering pieces of the planes over a 0.8-kilometre-wide debris field, according to Peter Hildebrand, regional manager with the Transportation Safety Board.

"What we're trying to do with this is to try and determine who was flying where at what altitude, what could they have seen, what might they have seen, what in fact did happen," Hildebrand said.

The TSB is not aware of any eye witnesses, but some people may have heard the crash, he added.

The crash happened in uncontrolled airspace, although there are precautions pilots routinely use to prevent such incidents, Hildebrand said.

Those include making radio calls upon departure and arrival, travelling at different altitudes depending on direction of travel and the "see and avoid" practice.

"Obviously, these measures did not prevent this collision from taking place," he said.

It could take up to a year before the board releases its findings.