Five die in plane crash in northwest Ontario

RED LAKE, Ont. – Five people have been killed in a plane crash in northwestern Ontario.

Ontario Provincial Police say a Bearskin Airlines twin engine turbo prop crashed just after 6:30 local time Sunday evening on its approach to the airport at Red Lake.

An OPP release issued early Monday morning says there were two survivors — a woman, 55 and a man, 29 from Winnipeg — who were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

The statement says the names of the deceased will be released after next of kin are notified.

Police said the 19 passenger Metro Fairchild had taken off from Sioux Lookout, Ont., bound for Red Lake, 270 kilometres north of Kenora, and about 100 kilometres east of the Manitoba boundary.

There’s no word yet on the cause of the crash, but the Transportation Safety Board said a team of investigators would be at the scene Monday morning.

Bearskin is based in Sioux Lookout and has operated since 1963, employing 300 people in Ontario and Manitoba.

Its fleet of 16 Metro Fairchild planes serve 18 destinations in the two provinces.

In May, 1995 a Bearskin aircraft collided with a Piper Navajo near the Sioux Lookout airport, killing all eight people on board the two planes.