One dead in ultralight crash
Witness said single-seater aircraft “nosed” into cornfield behind his house in Burtts Corner
The lone occupant of an ultralight is dead after the aircraft crashed on a farm property in Burtts Corner outside Fredericton late Friday morning.
RCMP officers and members of the Keswick Valley Fire Department were at the scene of a property in Burtts Corner, about 25 kilometres northwest of Fredericton, where an ultralight aircraft crashed in a field just behind a residential property along Route 104.
The call came in at about 11:30 a.m., said first responders at the scene.
The aircraft crashed right behind the home of Taigue McAvity. He told reporters he often sees small aircraft in the area as there’s an airfield nearby, about a 20-minute drive away.
“I came outside because I saw the plane sort of flying around,” he said Friday afternoon. “He was doing loops around.”
The small aircraft looped quite close to his home, McAvity said.
“And then all of a sudden, [it] just nosed down to the ground,” he said.
“I heard how hard he hit … You could see that he came down hard.”
McAvity said he and his wife ran out to the ultralight to see if they could render assistance, but there was nothing they could do.
“No signs of life,” he said, noting the victim in the single-seat aircraft was an older gentleman.
The first member of the Keswick Valley Fire Department was on the scene within five minutes, McAvity said, and the first responders took over.
The aircraft’s tail was sticking straight up out of the corn and was visible from the road at first, but he said first responders had to tip it over and down to pull the deceased from the wreck.
In addition to first responders, a member of the New Brunswick coroner’s office was on the scene Friday.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) is the lead investigating agency in the case, and all inquiries to police and other officials have been referred to that office.
In a brief statement Friday afternoon, the TSB confirmed it was looking into the crash but offered little other detail.
“The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is deploying a team of investigators following an accident involving an ultralight aircraft that occurred earlier today near Fredericton, New Brunswick,” it wrote in an email.
“The TSB will gather information and assess the occurrence.”
When first responders removed the body and cleared the scene, they left the ultralight wreckage behind for the TSB’s examination.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.