Small plane crash near rural Maine airport leaves 3 dead

Police and federal authorities were investigating the crash of a small plane in rural Maine that killed three people today after the aircraft departed from Canada.

The twin-engine plane was travelling from Pembroke, Ontario, to Prince Edward Island in Canada. The plane crashed on approach to Greenville Municipal Airport at about 11 am, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration said.

A cause for the crash was not immediately determined and was under investigation.

Police did not immediately release the names of those killed in the crash. The FAA was sending an investigator to the scene, they said.

The FAA said there were three people on board the plane.

The FAA said it would investigate the crash and the National Transportation Safety Board would determine the probable cause of the accident.

The NTSB said it expected to release more information on the crash tomorrow.

State police said they were assisting local police at the crash site. A dispatcher for the Piscataquis County Sheriff declined to comment on the case.

Greenville is a town of about 1,600 people located about 241 kilometres north of Portland, in a rural part of the state's interior near Moosehead Lake.

The plane left from Pembroke Airport, which is about 145 kilometres northwest of Ottawa, near the provincial boundary of Ontario and Quebec. It was bound for Charlottetown Airport, which is on the island province of Prince Edward Island in Atlantic Canada.