3 People Lost In Collision

A Canadian Mid-Air has resulted in the deaths of three pilots, NW of Toronto, Ontario. The accident involved a Cessna 172 from the Brampton Flying Club and a Cessna 182 from nearby Burlington Airport. Among the dead are a flight instructor and his student. The TSB has undertaken an investigation.

ID'd as having been lost in this tragedy are Ryan Sumere, 28, and Vinoo Abraham, 26, both of Mississauga and David Norton, 57, of Burlington, Ontario.

The VFR collision took place over a nearby farm at approximately 1240 local time, Friday. Both aircraft came down less than a mile apart.

TSB Investigator Donald Enns told local media that the aircraft from the flying club was on a training exercise, while the Cessna 182 was privately owned and based out of the airport. Enns noted that mid-air collisions are extremely rare and the last one he remembers occurred about five years before. "There was absolutely nothing to restrict your vision," Enns said. "I don't know the directions these guys were flying. I don't know what they're visual reference was going to be from one to the other. I don't know what they were doing."

Enns also reported that, "If they were heading straight toward each other, each should have pulled to the right — as cars do — to avoid each other... Assuming everything else is equal, you're going to usually make a turn to the right. But things are not like they are on a highway. One airplane might be high, one airplane might be low. They might not be on a direct head-on course. If you see an airplane coming at you from above and to the right, your automatic reaction is going to be to deviate left and down. We'll be looking at radar tapes and see if we can track these two airplanes. You never rule anything out at this point in the game."

No injuries were reported to anyone on the ground.

FMI: www.tsb.gc.ca