Seven dead in small plane crash in Canada

A small airplane crashed in a wooded area on the north shore of Lake Ontario in eastern Canada on Wednesday evening, killing all seven people on board, Canada's transport safety agency said on Thursday.

The US-registered single-engine Piper PA-32 plane was travelling from Toronto's Buttonville Airport to Kingston, Ontario when it went missing at around 5 pm local time (2200 GMT).

Emergency services, including police on all-terrain vehicles and a military search and rescue helicopter, were dispatched to locate the downed plane, which was found just short of its destination in an area that is hard to reach due to thick brush.

All seven people on board, including the pilot, died in the crash, Transportation Safety Board spokesman Alexandre Fournier told AFP.

The government agency sent a team of investigators to gather evidence on the cause of the crash.

They were busy throughout the day "taking pictures of the wreckage, looking at the condition of the engines and the general condition of the aircraft", said Fournier.

He added that they would also try to recover the plane's flight recorder and review radio communications with control towers. The identities of the victims were not released.