Niagara-area family killed in crash of plane that left Pembroke, Ont.
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A plane that departed from Pembroke, Ont., and crashed in rural Maine on Monday killed three members of a family from Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., according to police.
The Greenville Police Department said Tuesday that 58-year-old pilot Joseph Robertson, his 58-year-old wife Anita and their 24-year-old daughter Laura died at the scene.
Their plane had been bound for P.E.I.
The family is prominent in St. Catharines, Ont., where they made major financial contributions to a performing arts centre, were active in the United Way and where Joseph Robertson served on the board of Brock University for nearly a decade.
Brian McMullan, a former mayor of St. Catharines, said he’d been informed the couple were on their way to a family vacation in Charlottetown when the plane crashed.
The 60-year-old described them as “genuine, decent people,” who made a key early donation to the performing arts centre, which has helped revitalize the city’s centre.
‘Shocked and saddened’
Brock University president Gervan Fearon said in a statement the university was “absolutely shocked and saddened” by their deaths.
“Joe took on responsibility after responsibility, and with enthusiasm,” said Jack Lightstone, a former Brock president.
“The thing that struck everyone about Joe was his commitment.”
He said Laura Robertson had just been hired to work in the university’s athletics and recreation department.
Laura Robertson, 24, was killed in Monday’s plane crash. She had just started a new job at Brock University. (Facebook)
Crashed on approach
Jesse Crandall, Greenville’s town manager, said in an interview Monday that witnesses reported seeing a small airplane pass over Greenville Municipal Airport before crashing in a field on the approach to the runway at about 11 a.m. on Monday.
“They turned around over the airport and were coming back, banked sharply … and they hit the ground real hard,” he said by phone.
Crandall arrived at the airport just minutes after the crash. First responders told him there were no survivors in the mangled twin-engine propeller Piper Smith-Aerostar 600 light aircraft.
He said he had been receiving calls from aviation authorities informing him that the Canadian plane had communicated it was in distress and needed to make an emergency landing at his community’s airport.
‘A whole lot of people hurting from it’
“It’s a sad day … and now there’s a whole lot of people hurting from it, all the families,” said Crandall.
A spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration said the plane had departed Pembroke and was bound for Charlottetown when it went down, and that the agency would be sending an investigator.
Jennifer Layman — a spokesperson for the Pembroke and Area Airport, where the plane took off — said the private flight was one of two that departed around 9 a.m. ET on Monday.
She said the Pembroke airport received a call from the Greenville airport at about 11:30 a.m. ET, advising them of the crash.
The plane that crashed in rural Maine on Monday was this Piper Smith-Aerostar 600, a twin-engine propeller-driven light transport craft. (FlightAware.com)
The National Transportation Safety Agency is looking into the matter and will investigate the probable cause of the crash, which happened about 250 kilometres west of the Canadian border.
Agency spokesperson Terry Williams said Monday that an investigator would speak with witnesses, arrange for the aircraft to be moved to a secure location and gather evidence such as the engine condition, maintenance condition and the pilot’s records over the next 10 days.
Greenville is about 240 kilometres north of Portland, Maine, in a rural part of the state’s interior. Pembroke is about 150 kilometres northwest of Ottawa.
Greenville is about 150 miles, or 240 kilometres, north of Portland, in a rural part of Maine’s interior. (Google Maps)
Article source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/06/philippine-president-benigno-aquino-indicted-budget-misuse-180620084846137.html
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