What happened
A training flight departed from Toronto-Downsview Airport at 15:21 local time. The aircraft, a single-engine airplane, was operating a local instructional mission with one instructor and three US Army pilots (consisting of one pilot and two student pilots) on board.
Approximately 17 minutes into the flight, while the aircraft was in the cruise phase near the airfield, a catastrophic structural failure occurred. The right wing detached from the airframe, moved over the fuselage, and struck the tail section, which was subsequently sheared off. Following this loss of control, the airplane entered a dive and impacted a snow-covered field, where it caught fire. The impact resulted in four fatalities and the total destruction of the single-engine airplane.
Findings
Investigation into the accident determined that the right wing failed due to extreme negative lift forces that exceeded the aircraft's design limits. This structural failure was triggered when the aircraft entered a region of wing vortex turbulence created by an Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck.