14 CFR Non-U.S., Non-Commercial
Accident occurred Friday, August 24, 2012 in Moorefield, Canada
Aircraft: CESSNA 172, registration: C-FNET
Injuries: 4 Fatal.
On August 24, 2012, about 2030 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 172S, Canadian registration C-FNET, was substantially damaged on impact with terrain near Moorefield, Ontario, Canada. The pilot and three passengers sustained fatal injuries. Visual meteorological conditions existed in the vicinity of the accident site. The local personal flight originated from the Kitchener/Waterloo Airport.
The investigation of this accident is under the jurisdiction and control of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. This report is for informational purposes only and contains only information released by or obtained from the Government of Canada. Further information pertaining to this incident can be obtained from:
Transportation Safety Board of Canada
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Three men and one woman are dead after a single-engine plane crashed in a cornfield northwest of Kitchener, Ont.
The small, four-seat Cessna 172 was located in the field near the town of Moorefield, Ont., about 150 kilometres northwest of Toronto, late Friday night.
Const. Keith Robb of Wellington County OPP confirmed that there were four occupants on board the plane and none survived the crash.
The woman was 19-years-old and the three males are in their twenties, said police.
The passengers had been out on a sightseeing trip over Niagara Falls and Toronto for nearly two hours before they crashed, CTV Toronto’s Ashley Rowe reported.
Police had received a call at about 8:40 p.m. Friday alerting them to a plane spiralling out of control above Mapleton Township, Robb said.
Robb said the plane had apparently disappeared from radar about 20 minutes earlier.
Officers, firefighters and paramedics located the plane shortly after 10 p.m.
Resident Llori Nicholls told CP she and her husband spotted a plane weaving uncontrollably in the sky Friday night.
Nicholls said before the crash she saw the plane’s engine sputter, though the pilot appeared to regain control of the plane.
“The pilot got the engine going again," said Nicholls. "It was nice and strong, full power, but only for a second or two. Then it just went dead."
The couple went back to their home to find supplies to help locate any survivors, but when they returned they could not locate the crash site.
The couple then went to a neighbour’s house to call 911.
Resident Curtis Bultz, 21, heard strange noises Friday evening followed by the sound of the crash.
Bultz then drove his ATV through neighbouring cornfields to investigate, but after 10 minutes of searching he returned home.
“I heard it but there was no smoke or anything," said Bultz. "There was no smoke at all. That's what you think, (that) there'd be something but there was nothing."
Bultz, his neighbours and emergency crews did a grid search by foot, tractor and four-by-fours.
Two hours later, they were able to locate the wreckage, said Bultz.
Once the wreckage was located, Bultz’s father used a tractor to clear a path for crews to get to the scene.
OPP said weather is not believed to be a factor in the crash.
According to investigators, the 20-year-old pilot of the plane was fully licensed to fly.
He was also a regular client of the nearby Waterloo-Wellington Flight Centre from where the plane was rented, Rowe reported.
The pilot’s grief-stricken uncle arrived at the scene of the crash on Saturday and told reporters he was at a loss for words over his nephew’s death.
“Very special. Better than my heart. He was something like…,” he said, trying to describe his nephew. “I don’t have words for it.”
Bob Connors, the general manager of the flight centre, would not comment on the pilot’s flying experience.
Connors told CP that the school had not seen a crash like this in a “long, long, long time.”
Two investigators from the Transportation Safety Board were at the scene of the crash Saturday trying to determine if the plane suffered mechanical failure.
“We’re looking at all the aircraft systems and determining if the aircraft was without power at the time, if all the flight controls were hooked up and working properly,” TSB investigator Ken Webster told reporters.
The bodies of the victims have been transported to a Hamilton hospital for autopsies. The victims will not be identified until all the next of kin have been notified.
Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca
Debris from a plane crash sits in a field in Moorefield, Ontario
Cessna 172S, C-FNET, crashed Friday night in a cornfield near Moorefield; about 50 kilometres northwest of Kitchener. MOOREFIELD, Ont. - When Llori Nicholls and her husband first spotted a plane weaving back and forth in the sky Friday night, they had thought it was putting on a show.
Seconds later, the small plane disappeared out of sight and then they heard it nose-dive into the ground, killing all four people on board.
"It was doing these spirals but really high up in the air, like at first, we thought it was controlled," said Nicholls, who was out walking her dog.
"But then as we watched, we realized that it didn't look like controlled movements. It looked like it had lost control and it was going down."
Investigators are now trying to piece together what caused the light-coloured Cessna 172 to crash into a cornfield near Moorefield, Ont.
Ontario Provincial Police say three men and one woman were pronounced dead at the scene following the accident, which occurred around 8:30 p.m. Friday.
One of the victims was a 19-year-old woman. The three others were in their 20s, according to police. All were from the Greater Toronto Area.
Nicholls said before the crash, she saw the plane's engine sputtering but as it got closer to the ground, it looked like the pilot had been able to regain some control.
"The pilot got the engine going again," she said. "It was nice and strong, full power, but only for a second or two. Then it just went dead."
She and her husband then raced back to their nearby home to grab a first aid kit and sleeping bag, in hopes of finding any survivors. But when they returned in their pick-up truck, they couldn't locate the crash site.
They then went to a neighbour's house to call 911.
Nicholls said she's distraught over how scared the passengers must have been.
"There was definitely time in their descent for them to be terrified, and it just kind of doesn't sit good with me," said Nicholls, her voice quivering.
Curtis Bults was getting ready to leave for a baseball game when the Nicholls' showed up.
Moments earlier, he had heard strange noises behind his house.
"It sounded like a whiny noise, like a go-kart, like a small plane going 'Eee Eeee Eeeee!,' said the 21-year-old.
"And (then) a couple second delay, and I heard a thud. I heard kind of a shake in the ground."
Bults said his two dogs were "absolutely freaking" from the commotion, which could be heard clearly even though all the house's windows were closed.
He then drove his ATV through the adjacent cornfields to investigate. After about 10 minutes, he returned home after finding nothing.
"I heard it but there was no smoke or anything," said Bultz. "There was no smoke at all. That's what you think, (that) there'd be something but there was nothing."
Bultz said he, his neighbours and emergency crews did a grid search on foot, tractors and four-by-fours.
It wasn't until two hours later that they were able to locate the plane wreckage.
Once it was found, his father used a tractor to carve out a path for the emergency crews to get to the scene, he said.
"It was the middle of nowhere," said Bultz. "It was in the middle of a 50-acre cornfield."
OPP Const. Keith Robb said an emergency transponder signal had been activated when the plane went off the radar around 8:20 p.m.
It's unclear how long the plane had been in flight before it crashed.
At this point, the investigation remains in its preliminary stages but police do not believe weather was a factor.
"It was a clear, sunny night," he said.
Two investigators from the Transportation Safety Board remain at the scene, and are trying to determine whether mechanical failure is at fault. The plane was expected to be removed from the field later Saturday.
Bob Connors, the general manager of the Waterloo-Wellington Flight Centre, said the plane was one of his and it was a rental.
He said the flight school, which operates out of the Waterloo Region International Airport, had not had a crash like this in a "long, long, long time."
Connors would not comment on the pilot's flying experience.
The victims' bodies have been transported to a hospital in Hamilton for autopsies and police were in the process of contacting their families.
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