SURREY — A pilot is dead after the small plane he was flying crashed in a field in South Surrey on Friday afternoon.
Police say the plane crashed at about 3:10 p.m., near King George Airpark, which is near Colebrook Road and King George Boulevard.
Witnesses saw the plane flying northwest, turning to go east when the plane went down. The pilot, an adult male, was pronounced deceased at the scene. His name has not been released.
Both the BC Coroners Service and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada have been advised of the incident. Anyone who may have witnessed the crash is asked to contact the Surrey RCMP at 604-599-0502.
This is the third such crash in recent weeks.
On April 22, a local pilot's amphibian ultralight airplane lost power and he was forced to land it on Highway 91. Paul Deane-Freeman, 49, was alone in the ultralight and was flying over Delta after talking off from the King George Airpark in Surrey. His engine seized up 1,200 feet in the air.
Last month, a small airplane crashed in Surrey near the Serpentine River, but nobody was hurt. It happened on a private landing strip in the 4700-block of King George Boulevard. The pilot and passenger, both Port Coquitlam residents, were taking off when the single engine airplane crashed. Neither the pilot or passenger was injured.
OTHER CRASHES IN SURREY
In 2007, a Delta pilot crashed nose-first into a farmer's field after taking off from a private airstrip in the 900-block of 176th Street. He managed to climb to about 150 feet before apparently losing power. He was airlifted to Royal Columbian Hospital where he was treated for leg and other injuries.
In April 2001, a Korean man died when he crashed 15 minutes after his mini helicopter took off from the airpark and in 2000 two men were injured in separate crashes, in March and August, shortly after takeoff from the King George airstrip
In 1998, a pilot and passenger died when the two-seater ultralight airplane they were flying crashed into a farmer's field shortly after taking off from the King George airstrip.
With files from Tom Zytaruk