Pilot dies in southern Manitoba plane crash

A man is dead following a small plane crash Saturday morning just south of Oakbank, in Manitoba’s Rural Municipality of Springfield. Canada’s Transportation Safety Board has launched an investigation.

Emergency crews, including Oakbank RCMP, fire, and EMS, responded around 11 a.m. to reports of a downed aircraft in a field near the north side of Highway 15, west of Highway 206, roughly 20 kilometres east of Winnipeg.

Police confirmed the body of an adult male was found at the crash site. He was the sole occupant of the privately registered Quad City Challenger II ultralight aircraft, which has seating for two.

The aircraft crashed into the field at approximately 10:50 a.m., the Transportation Safety Board stated in a news release Sunday. Two investigators have been deployed to examine the scene.

“We are currently gathering information and assessing the occurrence,” the agency said.

Oakbank RCMP is also continuing its investigation.

This marks the third small-aircraft fatality in Manitoba this month.

On July 8, two student pilots — Sreehari Sukesh and Savanna Royes — were killed in a mid-air collision near Steinbach. They had been flying a two-seat Cessna 152 and a four-seat Cessna 172 during training exercises with Harv’s Air flight school when they collided, crashing into private property south of Steinbach South Airport, west of Highway 12.

Sukesh, who held a private licence, wanted to fly commercial, while Royes was working toward her private pilot licence.

The TSB is also investigating that collision.

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca