Comments by "Reecom98" (@reecom9884) on "CBC News" channel.

It appears that the pilot was flying under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) when he called the ATC for permission to descend and fly over the airport at 2,500 ft which is unusual. I think that the pilot knew something was wrong and wanted to be within range of the airport to land if it got worst. It got worst before he could return in time to land. The rule is you would lose too much airspeed and altitude doing a “U-turn” to land if you lose your engine and you didn’t have the altitude.
15
@billfarley9167 He lost the engine. He wouldn't have needed to look at the airspeed indicator with the stall warning horn blaring away in the quite plane.
1