Instructor and Two Students Die in Night Flight Training

Crash in early evening flight.  The official spokesman on site mentioned that it was unbelievable how much carnage this accident produced.  It has been estimated the aircraft impacted at a 45 degree angle.  Flying low, at night and looking for a place to land-engine problems?  Or, maybe vertigo set in and they lost their ground references--assuming there were sufficient references available.  

Damned shame and tragedy anyway you look at it!

I remember years ago, I was on my second night training flight with my instructor and I was hands on with this takeoff.  The time was August and we had 5 miles visibility during the day and the conditions were typical in Virginia during August.  Hot and muggy.

Well, right after rotation, above the treetops at around 800 agl, I noticed lights in the top of my windscreen and mentioned this to my instructor.  I told her that an aircraft was paralleling us in the opposite direction.  As soon, this announcement left my lips is when I looked at my artificial horizon and noticed it wasn't showing climb or wings level.  The lights were actually ground lights from a nearby house.  We were in a left bank, nose down.  This was an eye opener and just the beginning of 1 1/2 hours of night instruction.

No night flight is a routine flight in my book.  My instructor in those days didn't really trust our aircraft enough as to not be able to glide to a runway if the engine gave out.  There really were no references on the horizon like in day flight.  I'll never forget these flights.  Now, my instructor was extraordinarily beautiful, from Sweden and she was here gaining time to graduate to the airlines.

She was very professional and I was quite happy to fly with her as she didn't take up near the amount of space a male instructor would and I much appreciated her help when I felt somewhat lost on those night flights.

The ending of my last training flight for my required minimum night hours, I parked the aircraft and crawled out to tie it down.  Remember, August in Virginia is like being in the deep dark tropical jungle of one's nightmares. Hot, Muggy and Miserable.  As I was walking around and came up to her, I told her that she was the first woman to ever make me sweat so much without having kissed me first.  She just gave me me my logbook and a funny grin, figuring that maybe all American men were a little crazy. ... lakotahope

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• By Bernie O'Neill
• Nov 19, 2010 - 2:16 PM
• 2

Plane crash victims identified

The investigation continues. Wreckage of an aircraft can be seen in a farmer’s field northeast of the village of Whitevale west of Concession 24, south of Hwy. 407. The plane crashed Thursday night killed a Seneca College flight instructor and two students. Staff Photo/Sjoerd Witteveen

Plans are underway for a private memorial for the two Seneca students and their flight instructor who died in a crash just east of Markham last night. 

Flight instructor, 26-year-old Azizullah Yoosufani and two third-year students, 20-year-old Cynthia Hoi-Mei Tsang and 20-year old Lloyd Myles Cripps were returning to Buttonville airport from a routine flight training exercise when, around 7 p.m., Pearson International Airport notified Durham Regional Police they lost the plane on radar.
Meanwhile, the school is in mourning.
“It is with great sadness that I inform you of the death of two students and a flight instructor during a routine night flying exercise last night,” David Agnew, president of Seneca College, posted this morning on the college’s home page. “Our deepest condolences go to the families, and we extend our sympathies to the students, faculty and staff of the aviation school who have lost friends and colleagues. Out of respect, our flags will fly at half-mast and we will cancel Seneca Week activities scheduled for next week.”

Meanwhile, a representative from the airplane’s manufacturer was flying to Toronto today to inspect the wreckage of a plane crash that took the life of the young Seneca College flight school instructor and two students.

Inspector Peter Machete of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said a Beechcraft aircraft representative expected to arrive from Wichita, Kansas, will help as they try to figure out why the training flight went down in a farm field just south of Hwy. 407, killing all on board.
Mr. Machete said observations from the scene suggest the plane hit the ground at about a 45-degree angle. “It was quite an impact,” he said of the crash, which left debris from the small plane strewn across a wide area.

Mr. Machete said he could not speculate on if unsettled weather played a factor in the crash or if the pilot was attempting to make an emergency landing on the nearby highway, something another pilot had done successfully earlier this year.

Durham police received a call from Pearson airport around 7 p.m. about a flight controllers had lost radio contact with, Inspector Jamie Grant told reporters gathered near the rural crash site.
A police helicopter searched the area and located the downed plane scattered in several pieces in a farmer’s field north of Sideline 24 and Concession 5, near Hwy. 407, in Whitevale, he said.
“It’s devastating,” Insp. Grant said, describing the crash scene. “It’s just unbelievable how much carnage there is there. It’s a sad sight.”

The three victims  were believed killed instantly.
“We don’t know the cause of the crash at this point,” Insp. Grant said.
Transport Canada was on scene conducting an investigation, assisted by Durham police.
“It’s really sad to see that ... three young people have lost their lives in this tragic accident,” Insp. Grant said.
About 10 flight school students from Seneca College were at the scene late Thursday night.
One of the young men, who would not give his name, said Mr. Yoosufani was very competent.
“He was a confident instructor, a very great guy,” the student said.
The plane had been returning to Buttonville Airport when it lost contact with air traffic control.
“They had been cleared to return and land at Buttonville,” Insp. Grant said.
Pieces of the single-engine plane, which Insp. Grant said he believed was a Beechcraft, were scattered widely over a massive plowed field, he said.

Local fire services, the police forensic identification unit and the coroner were on scene. Police used all-terrain vehicles to navigate over the soft ground.
There are five Beech F33A models registered to Seneca College in North York. All of the one-engine models are based out of Buttonville airport.

Seneca College has the only aviation technology-based degree in Canada, according to the website of the college, which has a flight program that grants a bachelor of applied technology.