TORONTO — Two people are dead following the crash of a small plane in the Algonquin Provincial Park in central Ontario.
Capt. Jean Houde of the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Trenton, Ont., says both male victims aboard the Cessna 150 were in their 20s.
Earlier, Capt. Alexandre Cadieux at the Winnipeg-based headquarters of the search and rescue operation said the pilot had declared an emergency on Tuesday evening.
There was no official word on what prompted the mayday, but it appears the pilot may have become lost and ran out of fuel.
”The pilot had indicated that he was disoriented in clouds and was concerned that he would not be able to find a suitable landing area before he ran out of gas,” said Cadieux.
Cadieux said regional air traffic controllers then lost contact with the aircraft south of the sprawling park in the Haliburton area east of Bracebridge.
He said a Hercules military aircraft had picked up an emergency locator beacon but poor weather prevented the crew from making visual contact with the small plane.
Cadieux said Search and Rescue technicians lowered to the ground from a Griffin helicopter then found the crash site and the unidentified victims.
The plane had left the Buttonville Airport northeast of Toronto and Houde said the pilot had intended to return there.
