KINBURN – Kinburn’s Neil Spriggs, 59, has been identified as the pilot who died in Wednesday’s (Feb. 10) plane crash in the woods just south of the Carp Airport.

Police said the pilot, who was alone in the Blackshape BS100, was found dead at the scene. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is investigating. 

Spriggs started flying recreationally in 2009 and received his private and commercial pilot’s licence a few years after that. 

Spriggs was the CEO of Nanometrics, a company that monitors and develops seismic technology. Aside from flying, Spriggs loved horses, sailing and landscaping. Spriggs had visited more than 53 countries and had a degree in oceanography.

Spriggs had been with Nanometrics since 1992 and is credited with its success, helping it grow from an operation of 10 employees to one that employs 170 people across four offices in Kanata, Calgary, Houston and Beijing. The company was voted as one of the best managed companies in 2019.

During Wednesday’s plane crash, Sprigg’s radioed out he was experiencing engine failure and eyewitnesses at the airport reported the plane dropped from the sky quickly.