Three people were killed in a plane crash Monday morning at the Greenville Municipal Airport, according to Maine State Police.
The crash was reported around 11 a.m.
The Federal Aviation Administration said an Aerostar AEST aircraft crashed on approach to the airport.
Authorities have not identified the three people aboard the small twin-engine propeller plane, which had departed from Pembroke, Ontario, earlier that morning and was passing over Maine on its way to PEI’s Charlottetown Airport, Greenville Police Chief Jeff Pomerleau said.
Just before 10:45 a.m., the plane, an Aerostar AEST, sent out a distress signal, Pomerleau said. Minutes later, at 10:55 a.m., it crashed in a field about 100 yards outside the Greenville Municipal Airport, killing the three people aboard, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and Pomerleau.
The plane appeared to have been trying to make an emergency landing, but missed the runway, said Jesse Crandall, Greenville’s town manager, who oversees the municipal airport. Witnesses called 911 after watching the incoming plane nosedive into the field adjacent to the small airport, he said.
Authorities say they have been unable to positively identify the three people that died in the plane crash in Greenville at this. Hope that investigators from FAA will arrive from Boston by tomorrow. Details @WABI_TV5 pic.twitter.com/pM0ZQZX5wy
— Brian Sullivan (@BSullivanTV) July 30, 2018
By the time Crandall arrived at the scene, Greenville police and firefighters had cordoned off the area around the airplane, which was crushed by the impact.
“We already knew there were no survivors,” he said.
Maine State Police later arrived at the scene to assist local authorities with the crash reconstruction, evidence collection and in recovering the deceased.
The FAA said it will investigate and the National Transportation Safety Board will determine the probable cause for the accident.
Greenville is in Piscataquis County on the southern end of Moosehead Lake.
Update:
Police in Maine confirmed today that Joseph Robertson, 58, and Anita Robertson, 58, and their daughter Laura Robertson, 24, died when the twin-engine propeller Aerostar aircraft crashed into a field near the municipal airport in Greenville, Maine, on Monday
They were prominent philanthropists who gave their time generously to support the arts, universities and charities in the Niagara region.
The Niagara-on-the-Lake family are prominent in St. Catharines, Ont., where they made major financial contributions to a performing arts centre, were active in the United Way and where Joe Robertson served on the board of Brock University.
Robertson, the pilot, had departed Pembroke, Ont., with his family members at about 9 a.m. and was bound for Charlottetown when the crash occurred about an hour and 45 minutes later.
