‘We miss him already’: Flying community mourns loss of pilot killed in crash near Winnipeg

Peter Toth, a member of the Experimental Aircraft Association, has been identified as the pilot killed in a weekend crash. CTV’s Danton Unger has more.

Manitoba’s flying community is mourning the loss of a pilot killed in a crash over the weekend.

The Winnipeg chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association remembers Peter Toth as a happy person and a meticulous worker who loved being up in the sky.

“Whenever I needed someone to check my work, Peter was the person I would go to,” James Slade, the Association’s president, told CTV News Winnipeg. “He was often in the hangar working alongside me.”

In a Facebook post, the Association identified Toth as the pilot who died Saturday morning in a crash east of Winnipeg.

“It’s a tragedy. It’s a real loss to the organization and to the community as a whole,” Slade said. “Peter is definitely going to be missed by all of us.”

As CTV News previously reported, Manitoba RCMP said crews were called to an area south of Oakbank. When officers arrived, they found the wreckage of a privately-owned, single-engine aircraft.

The body of an adult male – the sole occupant – was recovered at the scene.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) said the ultra-light aircraft collided with terrain in a field near the town of Dugald. TSB investigators continue to investigate the incident.

Slade said Toth had been a member of the aviation club for more than half a decade and was working towards getting his private license.

“He really enjoyed flying his plane and had recently completed his recreational pilot permit,” Slade explained.

Toth had been working on his own Challenger II aircraft and documented the process on his YouTube channel. Toth recently took the plane up for its first flight according to a video posted on July 20.

Slade confirmed this was the plane Toth had been flying the day of the crash.

“He’s just really going to be missed,” Slade said. “We miss him already.”