Canoe

Wednesday, July 19, 2000

Two dead in small plane crash near Halifax

HALIFAX (CP) -- A small plane "dropped out the sky" and crashed east of the city on Wednesday evening, killing both people on board.

The white, two-seater plane crashed into a cemetery in Porters Lake, narrowly missing two large residences, said Morris Green, a spokesman for the Nova Scotia's emergency health services.

"Nobody on the ground was hurt," said Green. "It didn't hit any structure or any kind of residence."

Emergency workers said the two people died at the scene.

Peter Locke, an Ottawa man visiting relatives in the area, arrived on the scene, at the Hope of Resurrection Cemetery, a few minutes after the 7:30 p.m. local time crash.

He said area residents told him they had been watching the aircraft because it "appeared to be doing tricks or something."

"They said it was spiralling a bit, doing funny things, then it just dropped out of the sky."

Locke said both occupants appeared to be alive, moving slightly in the collapsed cockpit immediately after the crash. But he didn't see any movement after emergency worked arrived on the scene.

It wasn't immediately known where the plane was from or the identities of those on board.

Firefighters urged onlookers away from the scene after they found fuel leaking into a driveway.

Locke said some people reported seeing a piece coming off the plane and landing on one side of the road, while the plane flopped down on the other.

(end of article)

A Canadian Airlines 737 had an engine problem in Edmonton today, too, but I haven't seen an online article about it yet.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), July 19, 2000