FERGUS, ONTARIO — Two people died when a small plane crashed outside Fergus on Friday, October 9, according to an Ontario Provincial Police update released Saturday.

Emergency crews responded around 10:15 a.m. to a field near Beatty Line and Wellington Road 17. Police said the aircraft caught fire after crashing; firefighters extinguished the flames.

Both occupants were pronounced dead at the scene. Police reported no other injuries and said their resources left the area shortly after noon on October 10.

Flight details remain under investigation

CityNews reports that the Transportation Safety Board identified the aircraft as an amateur-built Skybolt biplane. According to the board’s statement, it left the Fergus airport around 10 a.m. for a local aerobatic training flight with two experienced pilots aboard.

The board said the plane came down in a cornfield about two kilometres northwest of the airfield and ended up upside down. CityNews reported that the occupants’ ages, genders and hometowns were not immediately available.

The TSB said it would collect and assess information in the coming weeks to establish the cause. The reports reviewed for this article do not establish why the plane crashed.

Sources: OPP news release reproduced by GuelphToday, October 10 at 3:01 p.m. EDT; CityNews, October 10 at 3:29 p.m. EDT.

Lead image: flag of Ontario by Kooma and Wikimedia Commons contributors, public domain. Illustrative image, not a photograph of the crash.