The Seneca College flight instructor who was among three who perished in a single-engine plane crash Thursday night was to be married next month.

Azizullah Yoosufani, 26, of Toronto had been an award-winning pilot and an instructor at the college’s flight school for just over two years.

Now his fiancée and family are in mourning today after the Beechcraft F-33A Bonanza crashed on a routine training exercise in north Pickering.

All three died on impact, police said.

The students were third-year students, Cynthia Hoi-Mei Tsang, of Toronto, and Lloyd Myles Cripps of Brampton. They were both 20.

The three were returning to Buttonville airport from a routine flight training exercise at around 7 p.m., when Pearson International Airport notified Durham Regional Police that they lost the plane on radar.

Sgt. Nancy van Rooy of Durham Police said the flight took place over Durham Region airspace.

“They flew out of Buttonville in Markham and they intended to travel across Durham Region and outside of our jurisdiction but they never got to their turnaround point further east,” Sgt. van Rooy said.

It is believed a problem with the aircraft forced the plane to turn around and try to report back to Buttonville airport sooner than expected.

A police helicopter found the downed plane's wreckage in a farmer's field near Whitevale Road, south of Highway 407 in north Pickering.

Meanwhile, the flight instructor’s family is trying to come to grips with their loss and the loss of the students.

Yoosufani’s wedding reception was supposed to be Dec. 26, said his brother, Farman, who learned the news late Thursday while visiting his eldest brother in Chicago.

“We don’t know details yet,” his brother said over the telephone.

“We’re trying to hang in there. I learned around 10 last night. I was in Chicago at the time. I headed out straight here. It’s been crazy ever since.”

He doesn’t know if his brother, or a student, was at the controls during the crash.

“I just talked to him yesterday,” Farman said. “Just usual brother conversation. It’s tough.”

Yoosafeni graduated with honours from the flight degree program in 2008. He was an Air Canada Jazz Award Winner and was on the president’s honour list, the school said.

Respected by faculty and peers, he had had just completed his upgrade to a Class 1 instructor.

“He was a great role model for other students,” Adel Labib, professor at Seneca’s School of Aviation and Flight Technology, said in a statement.

“He had a very strong work ethic; he was kind and thoughtful. He was a decent person with the full meaning of the word,” Labib added.

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Tsang was a class leader, the school said. Well-liked and a dedicated student, she had made the president's honour list and had passed her commercial pilot written exam and flight test.

Cripps, who had also passed his commercial pilot written exam and flight test, was a strong student who was working toward his instructor's rating, the school said. He was a Canadian and British citizen and was looking forward to flying in Europe after graduation.

The Transportation Safety Board is investigating the debris to try to determine what went wrong.

Iulia Popa, spokesperson for the Transportation Safety Board, told the Star Friday that “we’re working with the police and the coroner’s office at the scene.”

She said it will be some time before there is an answer to what happened.

About 10 flight school students from Seneca College were at the scene late Thursday night.

One of the young men, who would not give his name, said the instructor who died was very competent. “He was a confident instructor, a very great guy,” the student said.

Meanwhile, Seneca College students and administration are reacting with sadness.

A single bouquet of flowers was placed Friday morning under a Canadian flag at the Markham campus.

Out of respect for the victims, college president David Agnew said the school will be flying flags at half-mast for the next week and “we will cancel Seneca Week activities scheduled for next week.”

At a news conference Friday morning, Agnew told reporters that “Senecans are dealing with a tremendous loss. Our hearts are with the families and we are coming together to support the students, faculty and staff who have lost friends and colleagues.”

A private memorial will be organized for next week for the flight school community.