Around 5:45 p.m. on the evening of October 1, a self-built aircraft crashed outside Maynooth, Ont., a 30-minute drive north of Bancroft. The pilot, 51-year-old Jason Reynolds of Hastings Highlands, Ont., sustained fatal injuries during the crash and died that evening. He was the aircraft’s sole passenger.
Ontario Provincial Police’s Bancroft detachment was called around 9 p.m. when Reynolds didn’t return home. OPP searched the area, eventually finding the aircraft and Reynolds, who was pronounced dead a short time later.
Reynolds had been flying a small, self-built propeller plane known as a Super Bear.
On October 2, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada’s (TSB) Air Investigation Branch arrived at the crash site to gather information about the incident. The TSB said that it found aircraft wreckage approximately 160 metres from the end of a private airstrip.
“The aircraft impacted large trees before impacting the ground, and was destroyed,” the TSB said in an email.
The TSB has yet to release whether the crash occurred during takeoff or landing, and what caused the plane to crash into the trees.
“The investigation team is currently examining selected components of the aircraft and gathering further data,” the TSB said.
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