RCMP are heading to a remote lake in northern Labrador to investigate a plane crash that occurred there on Monday, July 15.
It is currently unknown what caused the floatplane to crash into Mistastin Lake and whether it crashed on its way to the fishing camp or on the way back.
The aircraft was owned by Air Sanguenay, a regional airline from Northern Quebec. The company’s chief executive Jean Tremblay told CBC that the pilot, Gilles Morin, 66, had been flying to and from Mistastin Lake for at least six years.
The bodies of three of the seven men were recovered by the Maritime Joint Rescue Coordination Centre, which handed over the investigation to the RCMP late Tuesday.
The tail and other debris from the plane were spotted in the lake on Tuesday, according to the Canadian Press, and the Maritimes Forces Atlantic scanned the lake and surroundings for survivors.
Because the area where the plane crashed is in a remote region of Labrador, it is only accessibly by air. It is approximately 100 kilometres southwest of Nain, the nearest place with an airport.
The RCMP said a “team of expert police divers, investigators, and search and rescue personnel” will be involved. Some of the equipment they will be using include side scan sonar and boats, all of which need to be transported by air.
- Pilot: a 66-year-old Quebec man who is still missing;
- Fishing Guide: A 50-year-old man from Newfoundland acting as a guide who is still missing;
- Fishing Guide: A 47-year-old man from Newfoundland acting as a guide who’s body was recovered;
- Passenger:a 67-year-old man from New Jersey whose body was recovered;
- Passenger: a 66-year-old man from Illinois whose body was recovered;
- Passenger: a 40-year-old man from Indiana who is still missing;
- Passenger: a 38-year-old man from Illinois who is still missing.
“The investigators will look at the aircraft, document what they see, take pictures; they may decide to take a part of the aircraft back to our lab here in Ottawa,” TSB spokesperson Alex Fournier told CBC.
