Pilot and passenger die in plane crash near Vermilion

A pilot and passenger died in a plane crash near an airport in east-central Alberta over the weekend.

RCMP were dispatched to the crash shortly after noon on Saturday, and the plane was found approximately 1.2 kilometres short of the local airport runway just north of Vermilion, Alta.

Police said there were two occupants in the plane — a 46-year-old woman who was the pilot and a resident of Slave Lake, and a 76-year-old man from Mannville who was a passenger.

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Neither survived the crash.

RCMP Cpl. Gina Slaney said she did not know the aircraft type, but said it was small.

The Transportation Safety Board said it deployed two investigators on Saturday following the crash and will be investigating what happened.

An Alberta Air Tours fly-in breakfast slated to take place Sunday at the airport was cancelled out of respect for those killed in the crash.

— with files from The Canadian Press