Woman dies after plane crashes into Lake Huron

A woman was killed and a man was missing after a plane crashed into Lake Huron near Goderich.

Witnesses reported seeing a small aircraft that appeared to be flying in distress near the Goderich Municipal Airport about 8:45 p.m. Wednesday, prompting emergency crews to be dispatched to scene, Huron OPP said.

Search crews using police dogs, boats and aircraft scoured the land and lake for the missing plane and its two occupants.

Members of the Huron OPP marine unit found a woman’s body near a small amount of crash debris from a fixed-wing plane in the water less than two kilometres from the shore, just west of the airport, about 2:30 a.m., police said.

The woman, whose name hasn’t been released, was pronounced dead at the hospital. Searchers, including an OPP dive team, scoured the lake Thursday for the body of the man, the second occupant of the plane, who also hasn’t been identified. “They’re still trying to locate the bulk of the plane,” Const. Jamie Stanley said. “They found portions of the plane.”

The Transportation Safety Board was notified of the incident, but hasn’t sent an investigator to the scene, a spokesperson said. “Until they find the plane, we’re not deploying,” a spokesperson said Thursday.

The municipal dock closed both of its boat launches to limit unnecessary vessel traffic during the search and recovery effort.

The Goderich airport remained open, but pilots were advised to call ahead, as some restrictions were put in place. Operations at the Sifto Salt mine weren’t affected by the plane crash, a spokesperson for Compass Minerals, the parent company of Sifto Salt, said.