Three Dead, One Survives With Serious Injuries

We now know the identities of three people who died in the crash of a Piper Cherokee Six near Iroquois, Ontario, on Thursday:

• Tony Schertzing, 52 and his wife Jane, 47, of Ridgeway, Ontario
• Michael Anderson, 55, of Fort Erie, Ontario

But the couple's 24-year old daughter was able to survive the impact.

Mike O'Brien works at a marina near the crash site. He's accustomed to seeing and hearing aircraft come and go from the nearby airport in Iroquois. But the 19-year old realized something was wrong with the Shertzing's Six almost right away. Instead of climbing above a row of boathouses obstructing O'Brien's view of the runway, the aircraft continued flying just a few feet above the ground. "All of a sudden there was this big thud and everything stopped. There was silence and then nothing," O'Brien told the Osprey Standard-Freeholder. The Cherokee Six clipped some trees at the end of the runway, then crashed upside-down in a marshy swamp not far from the departure end of the runway.

O'Brien says he ran all the way to the wreckage, arriving there almost before anyone else. Inside the wrecked cabin, he saw movement. The paramedic student popped out a window and was able to reach Tara, in spite of the knee-deep water. Other people lifted the fuselage to keep the young woman's head out of the water. Eventually, they were all relieved by the arrival of provincial police and rescue workers.

But O'Brien said he stayed with Tara holding her hand until paramedics came to attend her. “As I was walking away she reached out for my hand. I turned around and she said ‘Thank You.’”

O'Brien, overcome with emotion, said he had to turn away so she wouldn't see the emotions so obvious in his face.

Tara Schertzing is hospitalized in unknown condition. The Ontario Provincial Police and the Canadian Transportation Safety Board continue their investigation.

FMI: www.bst.gc.ca