'We're all in shock:' Neighbours mourn Toronto-area family of 5 killed in plane crash
CBC
A small but growing memorial made up of bouquets and teddy bears formed outside a home north of Toronto on Thursday as a community grieved a family of five killed in a small plane crash in Nashville.
Victor Dotsenko, 43, his 39-year-old wife Rimma Dotsenko and their three children, 12-year-old David, 10-year-old Adam and seven-year-old Emma, were killed Monday as a single-engine plane crashed alongside a highway near downtown Nashville.
The family, who were the only people aboard the plane, lived in King Township, located about 50 kilometres north of Toronto.
Two of their neighbours, Anne and Leo Amore, said the news has left them and others in their community "heartbroken."
"Just devastated. We're all in shock," Leo Amore said as the pair were on their way to buy flowers to leave outside the family's home.
Amore said he and Victor Dotsenko would often talk in the driveway.
"He was always working on his cars. He just loved his cars and his boats," he said.
The Dotsenkos were "a wonderful family," he said, adding their deaths leave a real "emptiness."
"It's a real tragedy," he said.
Anne Amore said the three children were joyful and "full of life," and the family was "lovely."
"They were always very, very pleasant, always kind and respectful," she said.
The family's deaths have also left students and staff at the children's school "completely distraught," a school administrator said, calling the family "an integral part" of the community.
Alina Pinsky, co-director of the UMCA Rich Tree Academy, a private school north of Toronto, said the family was part of the school community for many years.
David, Adam and Emma were "the sweetest kids you'll ever meet," she said in a phone interview.
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