Two dead after plane crash in Markham

Gosh, I am in this neighbourhood all the time -- scary!!! 

http://tinyurl.com/2fwc5jj

At least two people are dead after a fiery plane crash in Markham Tuesday afternoon, city officials say.

The pilot, a person from Burlington, and at least one passenger were killed when the plane crashed through the roof of an office building and burst into flames, said Markham mayor Frank Scarpitti.

"Obviously, something happened to the plane and I understand it was trying to get back...but it wasn't able to," he said, standing metres away from the scene of the crash.

Scarpitti said the plane, which was from Burlington, was being flown home from nearby Buttonville Municipal Airport when the pilot lost control.

According to a witness who watched the crash, the pilot looked like he or she was trying to "plant it" to avoid parking lots and pedestrians when the plane went down.

"We heard it first. We heard this big noise and looked up and saw the plane really close."

"Then he started to spiral down and twist. We saw him go into the plaza, right onto the roof," Carrie Wilson told The Star. Wilson, the Ottawa show manager for National Event Management on nearby Renfrew Drive, was driving back in a convertible with colleague Leslie Lawrence, the director of sales, from a lunch pickup at Wendy's.

"He had to avoid a lot of traffic and pedestrians," said Wilson, still shaken by what she saw. "He must have just tried to get it where it would be the least amount of damage. It looked to me as if he was trying to plant it somewhere."

The four-seater Cessna crashed onto the roof of Thinkway Toys, a two-storey office building at 8885 Woodbine Ave., just north of Highway 7, around 12:30 p.m.

By 3 p.m. witnesses said emergency workers were still trying to extricate the charred aircraft, which continued to hold the casualties, from the building.

According to Scarpitti, the roof of the building is still too unstable for rescuers to access the victims, despite fire crews knocking the flames down quickly.

Thinkway, which manufactures and distributes toys internationally for companies like Disney and Warner Bros., was quickly evacuated after the plane went down, said York Region police Sgt. Gary Phillips.

All 14 people in the building were able to get out safely and just two had to be treated for minor injuries, police say.

Despite crashing just blocks away from the airport, officials would only say, "there's no comment at the moment" when confronted with what happened.