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Three people dead in float plane crash south of Edmonton

Low Angle View Of Seaplane Flying Against Clear Sky

Three people are dead after a small float plane crashed into a rural field south of Edmonton on Friday morning, RCMP and Leduc County fire services confirmed.

The plane crashed about 20 kilometres east of Edmonton International Airport around 11 a.m. All three people aboard were dead when RCMP arrived on scene, said Cpl. Laurel Scott.

A witness reportedly heard the engine of the four-seater plane stall before it crashed about a kilometre north of Rollyview Road near Range Road 232, said Leduc County fire marshal Brad Gurmin.

The aircraft was not on fire when emergency services arrived, Gurmin said.

The plane's owner took off from the Cooking Lake airport with a private flight instructor around 10:30 a.m., according to the airport operations manager Tom Steele. The pilot, Steele said, was learning how to use the floats on his light utility Murphy Moose aircraft, which he had been flying out of the airport for around five years. The identity of the third passenger is still unclear, Steele said.

The private instructor onboard had thousands of hours of flying experience, according to Steele.

"That's why I think something horrible went wrong. This guy had way too much [flight] time for something simple to happen. Something bad happened on that airplane," Steele said in an interview with CBC News.

The Transportation Safety Board said a team of investigators was deployed to the crash site.

RCMP and New Sarepta Fire Department were holding the scene on Friday afternoon until the investigators arrived, Leduc RCMP said.