All six people aboard a seaplane that crashed on the province's North Shore around 1:40 P.M. have died on Sunday, Quebec provincial police said Monday.
According to Canadian Press, five passengers and one pilot were aboard the plane said Julie Leroux, Transportation Safety Board spokesperson. The de Havilland Beaver float plane, operated by Air Saguenay went down in a heavily wooded area near Les Bergonnes, about 250 kilometers northeast of Qeubec City, after taking off from Long Lake near Tadoussac. Although Surete du Quebec refused to disclose the identities of the victims, CBC News was able to confirm two identities. According to them, the pilot was Romain Desrosiers and one passenger was a 28-year old woman from France named Emilie Delaitre.
Air Saguenay vice-president, Jean Tremblay, said the Beaver plane was taking part in a routine sightseeing flight from Lac Long in Tadoussac. According to Tremblay, the flight was supposed to last 20 minutes only, however it hasn't returned on its scheduled time. Police said they received a call from Air Saguenay around 2 P.M. ET on Sunday. The terrain where the plane crashed is very steep and the rain throughout Monday morning had not help with the rescue operation. The search crews had to access the crash site by foot and on ATV's. The Canadian Forces also dispatched a Cormorant helicopter and sent in people by parachute.
Air Saguenay was genuinely surprised with what happened. The company often flies tourists around the area, as well as people hunting or heading to mining camps. The aircraft used was built in 1956, with about 25,000 hours of flight time, and the motor in the plane was claimed to be brand new. Tremblay said that the pilot of the aircraft had more than 6,000 hours of flying experience, all with Saguenay where he worked for the last 14 years. The airline upgraded its security system after one of its seaplane crashed in bad weather in 2010 killing four of the six people on board. However, weather conditions were optima; no clouds, no wind, no fog, last Sunday much to everyone's confusion.
The municipality of Tadoussac issued a statement Monday afternoon, offering their condolences. "Our thoughts are with the victims and their families," the statement said. "The quality of the experience and the safety aspects of the various tourist activities remain at the heart of our concerns. The municipality of Tadoussac will follow closely the results of the investigation led by the Transportation Safety Board. This will shed light on this sad incident and will provide the necessary recommendations in order to prevent such a situation from happening again."
Leroux affirmed the statement saying that investigators will try to determine the cause of the crash. "They will examine the wreckage, they will collect data, they will take photos for the investigation, and then they will conduct interviews with witnesses and the company," Leroux said.
