The investigation continues into the plane crash that took the life of a veteran pilot Monday afternoon.
Robert John Reany, 74, of Port Elgin, Ont., died when his single-engine Socata TBM 700 went out of control and fell from the sky near Calabogie around 12:15 p.m.
Reany, who left the Carp Airport and was flying alone in his six-seater, was heading to Goderich for Thanksgiving dinner with his family in southwestern Ontario.
It was a return trip for Reany, who was scheduled to land in Goderich about 1:30 p.m.
Timmins lawyer Lorenzo Girones and Reany had flown from Goderich to Carp earlier in the day.
While it is still too early to determine the cause of the crash, Transportation Safety Board Investigators said Tuesday that the impact was so intense that it uprooted a giant oak tree.
“We can tell from the marks on the trees and the impact on the ground that it was very steep with the nose down and hit with a great deal of speed,” Ewan Tasker of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said near the scene.
The plane had reached 27,400 feet before quickly descending off the radar.
One witness said the plane seemed to be doing aerobatics before she saw an explosion. Another reported a high-pitched whine like a motocross vehicle followed by a loud bang.
“We’re starting to gather witness statements (and) get a background on the plane and the pilot.
“We’ve heard varying accounts,” Tasker added of what eye witnesses have reported.
“We started data gathering. At the moment, we are trying to make sure all the pieces of the aircraft are accounted for. As it stands so far, there are no pieces unaccounted for. We’re going to take everything back to our lab in Ottawa and reconstruct it from there, and see if we account for all pieces.”
Fire damage was limited to 10 or 15 per cent of the plane, Tasker added.
“We’ll start the cleanup relatively soon, in the next day or two. It could be a bit of a struggle,” Tasker said of the difficulty to access the crash scene.
The plane was registered to Girones last month.
There was no report of any communication from Reany prior to the crash. “There wasn’t anything unusual from initial reports,” said Tasker.
“There was no may-day call from what I understand, or no distress call.”