Police say a 21-year-old Markham man has been killed after a small plane, which police said was stolen from a rural Greater Toronto Area airport, crashed near a mall in Peterborough overnight.
Police said the Piper aircraft went down just before 3 a.m. in Peterborough’s south end, near Lansdowne Place at High Street and Landsowne Street, about 140 kilometres east of Toronto.
The pilot, who was the lone occupant on board the plane, was found dead at the scene by emergency crews.
Police said the aircraft was stolen from a York Region airport north of Toronto earlier in the evening. Authorities did not provide details of the exact location.
“When the plane was in Peterborough we were able to identify the owner and contacted the owner, that’s how we established the plane was stolen,” Insp. Lynne Buehler told reporters Friday morning.
“York Regional Police Services is investigating the theft of the plane as it occurred in their jurisdiction.”
Police said the Transportation Safety Board attended the scene and is cooperating with authorities to determine the cause of the crash.
The identity of the deceased has not been released and police did not reveal whether he was a licensed pilot.
Buehler said the man’s body was taken by the coroner to Toronto for an autopsy.
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