Pilot dead after ultralight aircraft crashes outside Fredericton

A pilot is dead and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada is investigating after an ultralight aircraft crashed into a cornfield in Burtts Corner, N.B., late Friday morning.

Ken Hodgson, chief of the Keswick Valley Fire Department, said in an interview Friday evening that the pilot was dead when first responders arrived at the scene. Hodgson also said the pilot was the only person aboard.

The pilot's name has not yet been released by officials. 

Firefighters arrived on the scene about five minutes after getting the call, and used an off-road vehicle to get to the wreckage and retrieve the body, Hodgson said.

Both Hodgson and a spokesperson for New Brunswick RCMP directed questions about the investigation into the accident's cause to the Transportation Safety Board.

A spokesperson for the board did not have any details Friday about the cause.  

The plane crashed into the edge of a cornfield just behind a house along Highway 104 in Burtts Corner, roughly 20 kilometres west of Fredericton.

Taigue McAvity lives in the house right in front of where the aircraft crashed. 

He said he heard a plane flying low around 11 a.m. and went outside. He saw the aircraft flying in very low circles above the cornfield and a nearby farm. 

"I remember thinking, I hope he doesn't hit my house," McAvity said.

He said it's not uncommon to see airplanes around his house, since there's a small airfield about 15 minutes away.

After that, he said he watched the plane nosedive straight down from about 12 to 15 metres — or 40 to 50 feet — in the air. 

He and his wife called 911 and ran out to try to offer assistance. The fire department, paramedics and RCMP then arrived on the scene.

McAvity said the aircraft was heavily damaged after it crashed nose-first into the ground. The wreckage was originally standing up, but first responders brought the aircraft level with the ground, he said.