Small plane carrying 1 crashed east of St. John's, search ongoing for pilot

Search and rescue crews are still looking for the pilot of a small plane that crashed east of St. John's early Tuesday morning.

The plane, an Air Tractor AT-802, crashed approximately 130 nautical miles, or 240 kilometres, east of St. John's, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said in an email to CBC News just after 2 p.m. NT.

The crash is assumed to have happened around 8:40 a.m. on Tuesday.

Speaking with CBC News, Lt.-Cmdr. Len Hickey of the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax said the centre received an emergency beacon and sent rescuers to the area.

The plane had a solo male occupant, Hickey said.

"One pontoon of the aircraft was spotted on the surface, as well as an orange life raft. There was also a little bit of debris, and the Cormorant helicopter did confirm that that life raft is empty," Hickey told CBC News.

Hickey originally told CBC News the plane had departed from the United States. In a further update just after 3 p.m., the TSB said the plane had departed from St. John's International Airport and was being ferried to Portugal.

In a later update at 6 p.m., Hickey said the flight plan showed the American-owned plane heading for the Azores — an archipelago of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Hickey also said search conditions have worsened Tuesday evening, noting the ceiling has dropped to 200 feet and visibility is low. 

Searchers have also found an oil slick on the water near the crash site. That discovery  "pieces the story together a little bit," he said.

Several air vehicles and vessels remain on the scene, Hickey said, including a Hercules aircraft, Cormorant helicopter, a Cougar Airlines helicopter, a PAL Airlines aircraft, a Canadian Coast Guard vessel and two fishing vessels already in the area.

Ships and aircraft will stay in the area overnight and reassess in the morning, he said. 

The AT-802 is a single-engine propeller plane that Air Tractor bills as an agricultural craft, often used for spraying pesticides. It can also be adapted for firefighting purposes.

Schematics on the corporate website say the plane has a 60-foot wingspan.

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