ST. BRIEUX, Sask. – Two families in a rural Alberta community are mourning the deaths of their loved ones who perished Saturday when two small planes collided mid-air over Saskatchewan killing five people.
Debris of the crashed planes — a Piper PA-28 and a Lake Buccaneer amphibious plane — were scattered on grassy fields and amongst trees near St. Brieux, northeast of Saskatoon.
Transportation Safety Board investigators were expected to arrive at the scene later on Sunday, where one of the planes remained submerged in a small body of water.
Police have not identified the victims, but family members confirmed that the three people on board the Piper were Denny Loree, Eric Donovan and his 11-year-old son Wade. All three lived near Mossleigh, Alta.
“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, to pick up a part for a seeder. Donovan says both families are farmers near Mossleigh and that 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,” says Donovan. “It’s just who Denny was.”
Police said the Piper was on its way from Calgary to the airstrip in St. Brieux with two men and a young male, while the amphibious plane was flying from Regina to La Ronge, Sask. with a man and a woman on board. Police say there were no survivors.
Chris Krepski, a spokesman for the Transportation Safety Board, says it’s early in the investigation and details about
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