Federal transportation investigators to visit site of fatal Manitoba plane crash

Four people have died after a float plane crashed in northern Manitoba over the weekend.

WINNIPEG — Investigators are heading to the site of a plane crash that killed four people in remote northeastern Manitoba over the weekend.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada says investigators should arrive in St. Theresa Point Anisininew Nation by the end of the week to probe the accident that saw a bush plane crash approximately 40 kilometres south of the community while on its way to Makepeace Lake.

Two men aged 53 and 49 and two women who were both 50, all from St. Theresa Point, were pronounced dead at the scene in Saturday’s crash.

The pilot, a 20-year-old man, suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

The Transportation Safety Board says it is in its field phase of the investigation, which means the agency will be gathering information on the crash and speaking with witnesses and people involved.

The agency would not say whether that includes speaking with the pilot.

RCMP have said officers were informed of the crash by an iPhone satellite emergency crash notification service, which was able to pinpoint the location.

Planning is underway to remove the aircraft from the scene, which police hope is done later this week, RCMP said on Monday.

St. Theresa Point is one of four communities that make up the remote fly-in area of Island Lake.

The Transportation Safety Board has been informed of more than 30 accidents that have occurred in the community since 2000, with at least one other resulting in fatalities, according to data provided by the agency.

The board said the plane was a float-equipped DeHavilland DHC-2, known as a Beaver. The type is a single-engine aircraft that first took flight in the 1940s.

A man who answered the phone Sunday at Alair MHA Enterprises, whose website says operates six planes — two of them Beavers — out of St. Theresa Point, confirmed the plane that crashed belonged to the company but would not provide further details.

The Transportation board said on Monday that it has record of one incident from this past March that saw a Cessna C185F aircraft operated by the same company get damaged upon landing. There were no injuries reported at that time.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2025.

Brittany Hobson, The Canadian Press