Saskatchewan plane crash baffles experts

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FAMILY PHOTO / THE CANADIAN PRESS Denny Loree with wife Joan Loree in front of the Piper PA-28 that crashed in mid-air. (CP)

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FAMILY PHOTO / THE CANADIAN PRESS Wade Donovan (CP)

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FAMILY PHOTO / THE CANADIAN PRESS Eric Donovan (CP)

What was supposed to be a quick flight to pick up a piece of equipment ended in tragedy over the weekend as two small aircraft collided in the air over Saskatchewan, leaving five people dead, including a father and his 11-year-old son.

Transportation Safety Board investigators were beginning an investigation Sunday to try to figure out how the two planes had managed to seemingly defy the odds and strike each other about 180 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon.

"It's almost like a lightning strike. The probability of it happening would be extremely low," said Jerry Bourgault, a pilot with 30-plus years of experience who the RCMP tapped to help find the wreckage after word of the crash emerged Saturday morning.

Early Saturday morning, grain farmer Eric Donovan and his son, Wade, were on board a Piper PA-28 that was being flown by family friend Denny Loree.

The three were headed from Mossleigh, Alta. -- about 65 kilometres southeast of Calgary -- to St. Brieux, Sask., to pick up a part Donovan needed for a piece of seeding equipment.

They were just a few kilometres from their destination when their aircraft collided with an amphibious plane flying from Regina to La Ronge, Sask.

That plane was carrying a man and a woman.

All five people were killed, but the man and the woman aboard the amphibious aircraft had not yet been identified Sunday.

"It's such a horrific incident. It's such a tragedy," said Mackenzie Loree, whose father Denny was the Piper's pilot.

Ian Donovan, Eric Donovan's cousin, said the trio were on their way to Bourgault Industries, a farm-equipment manufacturer based in St. Brieux. Donovan said both families are farmers near Mossleigh and the Donovans' seeder broke, so Loree offered to fly them to St. Brieux to save them from having to drive more than six hours each way.

Donovan said Loree took time out from seeding his own land in order to help the Donovans out.

"He was being a good neighbour," said Donovan. "It's just who Denny was."

Pieces of the two small planes involved were scattered over more than a kilometre of terrain.

Bourgault, the general manager and president of Bourgault Industries, an international air-seeder company based in St. Brieux, hopped into his plane after the crash to scour the area for indications of the two downed aircraft.

He found one of the planes in a slough west of St. Brieux. The two planes were found in different sloughs less than a kilometre apart.

"There was a lot of wreckage, probably pieces spread for a mile," said Bourgault.

"It's tragic. It's a big hole in our community now," said Ian Donovan, who is also the region's newly elected legislature member for the Opposition Wildrose party.

"Eric was involved in the Lions Club. There was nothing he wasn't willing to go help them do all the time.

"Tragic when an 11-year-old boy gets his life cut that short, that quick."

A relative of Loree described him as a "flying farmer" with more than 1,000 hours of experience in the air.

"It just seems so bizarre," said Suzanne DePaoli, Loree's sister-in-law. "In the big skies of Saskatchewan, you don't expect this to happen."

Loree had been flying for nine years, and purchased the 50-year-old Piper propeller plane in 2006.

Transportation Safety Board investigators were on their way to the scene of the collision.

Mackenzie Loree said he and his mother, Joan Loree, are thankful to everyone who helped in the search. He said his father was an excellent pilot, and he doesn't want to speculate about what happened while the TSB conducts its investigation.

"Our hearts go out to all of the family and friends of the deceased individuals," Loree said. "We want to pay tribute to Eric, Wade and Denny who were loved and respected by all who knew them."

Donovan said his cousin leaves behind a wife and three other children.

Pauline Boyer, mayor of St. Brieux, Sask., said people in the small community are praying for the families of the victims.

"We don't know the names of the people," Boyer said Sunday morning. "It's just a very sad event that happened near our community.

"It's very, very tragic."

-- Postmedia News / files from The Canadian Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 14, 2012 A4