A student pilot and flying instructor are dead after a plane crashed near the Springbank Airport west of Calgary Thursday morning.
“It is with great sadness that I have to report that an SATC aircraft has crashed this morning,” Springbank Air Training College president Jayme Hepfner said in a statement. “There were two occupants on board, a student and instructor, who did not survive.”
Hepfner said the school will ensure all staff and students are supported through the tragedy and expressed sympathy for the families involved.
“There are many questions to be answered and I plan to take it step by step to try to provide peace to the families and the greater aviation community.”
The plane was a Piper PA-34-200T built in 1975 and owned by Springbank Air Training College, according to a preliminary Transport Canada report. The report said the accident happened during takeoff from a Springbank Airport runway.
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“The aircraft crashed one mile south of airport in a field,” it said.
Global News crews on scene said the area appeared to be a farm field one kilometre west of the Springbank Middle School.
EMS spokesperson Stuart Brideaux said the two adults were deceased when paramedics and fire crews arrived.
“There is a fire and smoke in the area and visibility is reduced on the highways,” Cochrane RCMP said in a release sent just before 11 a.m.
“Please use caution if driving on these roads.”
Drivers were asked to avoid the area during the investigation. EMS said the scene was south of Highway 1, west of Calaway Park.
Rocky View County communications advisor Amanda Bradley said a witness called in with a report of a plane flying low that crashed just before 10 a.m.
Bradley said fire crews from Springbank Fire Hall, Elbow Valley Fire Hall and Cochrane responded to the scene on Huggard Road between Range Road 33 and Range Road 34.
She said the airport authority and RCMP had taken over the scene as of 10:30 a.m. The airport authority deferred all questions to RCMP.
Transport Canada and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada sent teams to investigate the crash.
Anyone with information regarding this investigation is asked to contact the Cochrane RCMP detachment at 403-851-8000 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).
With files from Global’s Jodi Hughes
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