One person dead as planes collide in Quebec

SAINT BRUNO, Que. Two small planes collided over a bustling Quebec shopping mall on Friday, killing one pilot and seriously injuring the other.

The injured pilot was taken to hospital as were two witnesses who were treated for shock, police said.

Longueuil police tweeted Friday afternoon the other pilot’s injuries were not life-threatening.

“One of the planes crashed on the roof of one of the stores and the other one on the asphalt of the parking lot,” said Nancy Colagiacomo, a spokeswoman for the police force that serves Montreal’s south shore. Each plane had one male pilot, police said. A witness said he saw pieces of plane rain down onto the parking lot of the mall, called Promenades Saint-Bruno, located 25 kilometres south of Montreal.

“I saw the shadow of the plane on the parking lot, and I heard the motor so low to the ground and then a loud boom,” said Nheil Martinez, a construction worker who was renovating a part of the mall.

He was outside smoking a cigarette when he saw the plane crash.

“Then we saw pieces of plane fall out of the sky everywhere.”

Martinez said he ran to the plane and saw a man inside, whose body was crushed.

Police set up a security perimeter around the wreckage in the mall’s parking lot.

An officer said kerosene from the plane that crashed on the roof leaked into the shopping mall, forcing police to evacuate the entire building.