It could take several months to determine what caused a small plane to crash near Moorefield Aug. 24, killing all four people aboard.
The flight had originated at the Region of Waterloo International Airport aboard a four-seater rented from the Waterloo-Wellington Flight Centre. The plane, a Cessna 172, was piloted by Marko Misic, 20, of Toronto, an accomplished graduate of the Air Cadet League of Canada with a number of flying awards under his belt. Last Friday, he and three friends boarded the single-engine aircraft heading for some sightseeing over Niagara Falls and Toronto, but never reached their destination.
The plane took off from the Breslau airport around 6:15 p.m. with Misic in the pilot’s seat. About two hours later, eyewitnesses saw the aircraft over a Moorefield-area cornfield, reporting they heard the plane’s engine stall, restart and stall again before spinning nose-first toward the ground, followed by a loud thud.
Misic and passengers Mohammed Shahnawaz Zia, 23, of Toronto Wasay Rizwan, 27, of Toronto and Victoria Margaret Luk, 19, of Mississauga, were pronounced dead at the scene when the plane was eventually found about 10:30 p.m.
Their recovered bodies were taken to Hamilton General Hospital on Saturday morning for autopsies while the plane was removed from the crash site and taken away for further study.
The exact details of what happened aboard the flight to cause the crash will remain unknown until the completion of a lengthy investigation by the Transportation Safety Board (TSB).
“[The crash] was about 25 nautical miles west of the airport, in Wellington County southwest of Moorefield,” explained Ken Webster, a senior investigator with the TSB, in a phone interview Monday.
“The aircraft is now located at our facility in Richmond Hill where we will be doing further examination this week.”
An investigation by the board must pass through two stages of field and post-field work, Webster explained, in which evidence will be gathered and interpreted, before any official reports can be made. The board is still in the preliminary stages of identifying any possible deficiencies as the entire aircraft and its mechanics are examined further.
Operations at the Waterloo-Wellington Flight Centre ceased after the crash, as officials there cooperated with TSB investigation.
“They came here to get documentation related to the airplane and the pilot [Misic] …and so that process is now wrapped up,” general manager Bob Connors explained Tuesday.
The flight centre resumed flying operations on Wednesday, according Connors, who attended the visitation before Misic’s funeral at Our Lady Queen of Croatia Church in Mississauga on Friday.
Witnesses who lived nearby began looking for the plane after it struck the ground, calling 911 shortly thereafter, according the TSB. The crash site lay a considerable distance from the Mapleton Township’s Sideroad 3, and the wreckage was located in a cornfield by the Mapleton Fire Department after almost two hours of searching.
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