A small aircraft with three people aboard crashed down in Ottawa just west of the city’s airport on Thursday evening.
It happened shortly before 6 p.m. in the area of Riverside Drive and West Hunt Club Road. A photo shared by one resident showed a plane wedged in the trees.
Emergency services responded at 5:55 p.m., according to the Ottawa Paramedic Service. One man and one woman were rescued from the plane and taken to the hospital in stable condition with non-life-threatening injuries.
Marc Antoine Deschamps, a spokesperson for the paramedic service, said it took a significant effort by emergency services to rescue those two people from the plane.
A third person remained onboard and their condition could not be confirmed yet, he added.
The Transportation Safety Board Canada (TSB) said it has two investigators at the scene. The plane involved was a privately-registered Grumman AA-5A, the agency confirmed.
The Ottawa Airport Fire Service also responded to the crash and operations at the airport remained normal, according to the Ottawa International Airport Authority.
Greg Carter lives on an offshoot of Riverside Drive where the plane went down in the bush. He said he was out for a walk when the plane crashed around 30 metres behind him.
“I heard a loud crash, sounded like a tree falling but a bit more intense,” he said. “It got hung up in the power lines.”
He said he saw the power line arcing, flashing and making popping noises.
The lines were live at the time of the crash, confirmed fire services, but Hydro Ottawa turned the power off before the rescue began.
He was unsure what had hit the trees behind him. But as he approached, he could see the plane suspended in the air.
“I could see inside the cabin and I could see one person in the right seat and one person in the back seat, but I could not see the pilot seat,” he said.
Pablo Coles also lives nearby.
He saw the plane approach the area at a low altitude and called 911 as soon as he heard a bang, which he feared was the plane crashing into a neighbour’s house.
Coles ran into the street and saw instead that the plane was “hung up in the trees and power lines.”
A lot of gasoline leaked from the scene, he said. The fire department said it was working to mitigate fuel spillage from the crash into a nearby creek that leads to the Rideau River.
“We are applying that foam to the fuel where there is a runoff,” said Ottawa Fire Services public information officer Nick DeFazio.
Coles also saw the man being escorted by emergency workers from the plane.
“I am very sad for the people inside,” he said.
