Carrie Wilson watched the doomed plane go all the way down.

“We heard this big noise and looked up and saw the plane really close. Then he started to spiral down and twist. . . . We saw him go into the plaza, right on to the roof,” said Wilson, a manager with National Event Management with an office near Buttonville airport in Markham.

The pilot of the four-seater Cirrus SR20, which had just taken off from Buttonville, and a passenger died when the plane crashed into the roof of Thinkway Toys, a toy-manufacturing company at 12:20 p.m. Tuesday. More than a dozen employees scrambled to safety from the two-storey building.

Wilson and Leslie Lawrence, a colleague, were in a convertible on Renfrew Dr. when they saw the plane crash just metres away.

“It looked to me as if he was trying to (land) it somewhere,” said Wilson.

The pilot, who normally flies out of Burlington, had flown to Buttonville airport at about 8:30 a.m. for some radio work on the aircraft. He took off at 12:15 p.m., said Derek Sifton, president of Toronto Airways Ltd., which owns and operates the airport.

“We have no idea what went wrong,” said Sifton. “It was a short flight . . . there was no flight plan filed.”

The impact of the crash caved in the roof and broke several windows. A wheel of the aircraft could be seen lying on the front lawn of the building at Woodbine Ave. and Hooper Rd.

Firefighters had the blaze under control in an hour but emergency crews couldn’t extricate the aircraft or the two bodies because of the precarious condition of the roof. A crane was brought in Tuesday evening but it was then discovered that an air conditioning unit had also partially caved in, said a Transport Canada official.

It had to be removed before crews could go in.

“None of the officials have been able to access the cockpit because of its precarious position,” said the Transport Canada official.

Anthony Van Bruggen, a toy designer, was at his desk when he heard a loud boom. “We ran to see what had happened and saw a bunch of co-workers running covered in fluid and debris.”

A couple of employees went upstairs to make sure everyone was out. “We opened the door and there was literally a pool of liquid coming towards us. It smelled awful.”

Van Bruggen said he even tried to get to the rooftop but had to turn back because of the gas fumes.

“I’m glad I didn’t because there was another explosion about five minutes later,” he said.

Hours later, Van Bruggen was still shaken but had stopped coughing. “It’s a miracle everyone managed to get out,” he said.

There were 14 people in the building and every one escaped with two suffering minor injuries, said York Region police Const. Rebecca Boyd.

Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti was at the scene and pointed out that such incidents are rare at Buttonville airport. “It’s unsettling but obviously something happened to the airplane.”

Businesses in the neighbourhood said they’ve never been concerned with aircraft flying so close. “We almost never hear anything,” said Lucy Hamilton who works at a nearby restaurant. “It’s never been a concern.”

Buttonville Municipal Airport is the 10th busiest airport in country and operates Canada’s largest flight school, according to its web site.

The last accident within its control zones was in the 1980s, said Sifton.

A team from the Transportation Safety Board was at the scene to investigate the crash.

Meanwhile, witnesses were still stunned. “It just breaks my heart,” said Wilson. “The moment we saw him, we knew whoever was in the plane knew they were coming down.”

With files from Teri Pecoskie and Henry Stancu

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