2 Ottawa residents in their 70s dead following plane crash in Port Hope, Ont., police say

Two seniors from Ottawa have died following a rural plane crash east of the Greater Toronto Area, police say.

Northumberland OPP were part of a team of emergency services that attended the scene of a plane crash near a private airstrip just north of  Port Hope on Saturday evening.

At around 8:51 p.m., OPP officers were informed a Piper Cherokee aircraft had crashed in a field close to a private airstrip in the area of Kellogg and Massey roads in the Municipality of Port Hope.

Sebastien Lachapelle, as senior investigator with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB), said the accident took place during takeoff.

“It was on takeoff the aircraft came into contact with trees and crashed on the left side of the runway,” he said.

The plane was a four passenger Piper PA-28 Cherokee.

“Sometimes the GPS gives us the tracks but we’re not sure yet if we can get something from the GPS we have on board the aircraft,” Lachapelle said.

Police identified the two deceased as 74-year-old Alvin Crosby and 72-year-old Suzanne Parent, both from Ottawa.

Police have since cleared the site of the incident.

— with files from Global News’ Morganne Campbell and The Canadian Press