First responders say the pilot of a small, ultra-light plane that crashed in Ottawa’s west end, narrowly missing a house, has been removed from the aircraft and taken to hospital with a serious head injury.
The crash occurred around 8:30 a.m. in front of 3219 Old Almonte Rd., between Howie and Beavertail roads, on the outskirts of Carp in rural west Ottawa.
Initial reports from first responders said the plane had landed on a house but it was later confirmed the plane clipped and snapped a ground wire attached to the home, just barely missed the house itself. The aircraft crashed on the road in front the property, breaking a wing and landing in the ditch.
Jude Bassett, who lives in the house the small plane nearly hit, was getting her three children ready for school when the plane went down.
Marc-Antoine Deschamps, spokesperson for the Ottawa Paramedic Service, said the pilot’s condition was serious but not life-threatening. He said the pilot, whose age he couldn’t confirm, was stabilized, taken away by ambulance and then transferred to an Ornge helicopter that flew him to Ottawa’s trauma centre.
There were no other passengers on board the plane and no one else was injured in the incident, Deschamps confirmed.
Bassett said her husband Jason and an employee were outside at the time, saw the crash and ran over to assist the pilot, who was stuck in the plane. She said fuel was “pouring out” of the aircraft and her husband grabbed a fire extinguisher to have at the ready.
An off-duty firefighter driving by also saw the plane go down in his rear view mirror and turned around to help, she said.
When she joined them, Bassett told reporters she kept asking the pilot his name. She said he was alert and coherent.
“We basically just held his hand, kept him awake and held towels on his wounds,” she said.
“He’s a strong man.”
WATCH: Small plane crash near Ottawa leaves pilot seriously injured
Even though no one in her family was injured, Bassett said things could have turned out very different had the plane crashed 15 minutes later. She said the spot on the road where the broken aircraft was lying is where her children usually stand to catch the school bus in the morning.
Now that she’s had time to digest what happened, Bassett told Global News she’s left feeling “pretty shocked.”
“It’s a bad spot. We already have a lot of car accidents on this corner,” she said.
Bassett said she thinks the plane took off from the Carp Airport, located north of her home on the other side of Highway 417. She said the plane had been doing circles above her large property before it clipped the wire.
Based on the contents of the plane, she said it looked like the pilot was travelling.
Old Almonte Road remains closed to traffic between Howie and Beavertail roads.
A spokesperson for the Transportation Safety Board said the agency is aware of the crash and is “monitoring” the incident but has “no plans” at the moment to send out an investigator.
According to the Canadian Civil Aircraft Register, the model of the plane is a Quad City Challenger II and the tail number identifies Len Connelly of Scarborough as the owner.