Durham Regional Police say three people were killed after a small plane crashed Thursday night in a field northeast of Toronto.
A male instructor from Seneca College and a male and female student were killed.
Police Inspector Jamie Grant said they were on a training flight and returning to Buttonville airport, just north of Toronto.
The single-engine, four-seater Beech 33 went down in north Pickering.
"It's devastating, it is just unbelievable how much carnage there is there, it's a sad sight," said Insp. Grant.
Sgt. Nancy van Rooy said a police helicopter was sent out after the plane disappeared from radar around 7 p.m.
The crew found the crash site in a field near Highway 407, in the Whitevale Road and Sideline 24 area.
An air ambulance crew found that the three occupants had died at the scene.
The age of the victims has not been released.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators were at the site trying to determine what caused the crash.