Pilot able to escape after plane crashes into northern lake

Float plane upside down in Wawa Lake following crash. June 15/22 (Ontario Provincial Police)

It was a close call for the pilot of a float plane in northern Ontario on Wednesday night after the aircraft crashed into a lake flipping upside-down, police say.

Officers from the Superior East detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police received a call about the crash on Wawa Lake just before 8 p.m. June 15.

"The ultralight aircraft had flipped over and was resting upside down in the water," OPP said in a social media post on Thursday.

Local residents on kayaks and officers in a police boat rushed to the scene.

"The pilot was able to free himself from the aircraft and did not sustain any injuries," OPP said.

"Police assisted the pilot onto their vessel and towed the aircraft to a safe location."

In April, there were three small plane crashes in the northeast region.

Two of them happened on April 11, one in Sault Ste. Marie and the other in Timmins. No one was hurt in either crash.

On April 14, two men from Alberta were killed after their plane went down in Lake Superior Provincial Park, 40 kilometres south. A search for the plane, that had left Delhi, Ont., took more than a month in that case.