One person is dead and another was taken to hospital after a float plane crashed into heavy bush near the southeast end of Puslinch Lake early Thursday afternoon. OPP have identified the deceased as 47-year-old Russell Hawkins of Guelph. John Prno, director of Waterloo Region Emergency Medical Services, says the survivor was transported to Cambridge Memorial Hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Roger Joycey and Vince Grogan were having lunch at the Old Marina Restaurant and Gift Shop when they saw the plane go down across the lake shortly before 2:30 p.m. Grogan tells CTV News two float planes were doing ‘touch and goes’ on the lake and had successfully completed three or four of them. Then Joycey says, one of the planes appeared to have caught some wind. “We saw one going up and we saw that it was in trouble right away, and it just went over the trees at that large cottage over there and crashed right into the hill in behind the trees at that house right there.” When they heard the big crash, Grogan called 911 and Cambridge Fire, EMS and OPP responded. Afterwards, they say all that was visible from their vantage point across the lake was the flashing of emergency lights. Ken Elligson lives in the area and says a friend saw the crash scene, “The plane was upside down, the nose had broken off…he didn’t want to go any closer and he could hear the fire trucks coming so he just turned around and walked back.” People in the area believe the plane involved may belong to someone who lives by the lake, but no information on the identity of the men on board has yet been released. OPP Insp. Scott Lawson says “The coroner has arrived at the scene the Transportation Safety Board and coroner are now working together at the scene…and we are just going to move along with the coroner to determine the next steps in the investigation.” Hydro has been disrupted for some residents in the area, and it’s not yet clear when it will be returned.
