By Karen Bartko Global News
A pilot was found dead after his crop duster plane crashed on a rural road Monday morning east of Ponoka in central Alberta.
RCMP said officers from the Bashaw detachment, firefighters and EMS were dispatched just before 10 a.m. to the crash site on Range Road 190 near Highway 53, near the village of Donalda.
STARS Air Ambulance was also dispatched to the scene but stood down.
RCMP said emergency crews arrived on scene to find the pilot, a 39-year-old man from the nearby village of Bawlf and lone occupant of the plane, was dead.
The Air Tractor 502B with with tail number C-FJVL was owned by Arty’s Air Service Ltd., according to Transport Canada.
The Manitoba-based aerial agricultural service does crop spraying across Western Canada.
The American-made turbo prop commercial aircraft was build in 2015 and imported to Canada that same year.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada sent a team of investigators to the the scene near the village in the County of Stettler No. 6.
The plane appeared to crash on the gravel road just west of the village, where investigators were seen combing over the scene Monday afternoon.
