RCMP in eastern Newfoundland take over search for pilot of downed small plane

A Newfoundland flag flies in Rocky Harbour, N.L., on Sept. 4, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

ST. JOHN’S — The RCMP have taken over the search for a pilot reported missing after his small aircraft crashed in the Atlantic Ocean off the east coast of Newfoundland on Tuesday morning.

A spokesman for the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Halifax says a search started after the centre received a signal from an emergency beacon around 9 a.m. Atlantic time.

Over the next two days, members of the military and the Canadian Coast Guard found an oil slick, one of the amphibious plane’s floats, an empty life-raft and other debris about 225 kilometres east of St. John’s.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada says the single-engine Air Tractor AT-802 took off from St. John’s International Airport with only the pilot aboard on Tuesday morning, heading for the Azores — a chain of islands off the west coast of Portugal.

The board has confirmed the turboprop was purchased in the United States by a man from Spain, whose flight plan included a stopover in St. John’s.

A military spokesman says the RCMP are now handling the pilot’s disappearance as a missing persons case.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 1, 2025.

The Canadian Press