Small planes collide over Montreal-area shopping mall
One pilot killed, the other critically injured
ST-BRUNO, QUE. • One pilot is dead and another critically injured after two small planes collided in mid- air near a shopping mall south of Montreal j ust before 1 p.m. Friday.
One plane crashed onto the roof of the shopping mall, its fuel leaking into the building. The other plane slammed into the parking lot, splintering into pieces that one witness said looked like broken Lego blocks.
Two other people who saw the crash unfold were being treated for nervous shock, Longueuil police told reporters at the scene. Police added that they didn’t fear for the life of the injured pilot.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada announced it was deploying a team of investigators to the site. The TSB said in a statement that both planes were Cessna 152 aircraft operated by Cargair Ltd., a pilot- training academy in nearby St-Hubert.
Antonio Chirita, who works at a Vidéotron store in the mall, said he heard a loud bang, smelled what he thought was kerosene and heard people screaming. He raced outside to discover the plane strewn across the parking lot, its fuel also leaking.
“Somebody was going around the plane, and trying to see what was happening, and there was another guy from a store who came out, and told him to go away because there was kerosene on the floor,” Chirita said. “It’s highly flammable. They got into a fight but nothing really big. But I think they realized the people in the plane were in pieces.”
“I know the pilot in front of the store was dead,” he added. “The plane was totally in pieces. It was like a Lego toy.”
Longueuil police said each aircraft had only one individual on board, the pilot. Police did not release their identities.
Premier Philippe Couillard expressed sympathy for the victims of the crash and those who were inside the shopping mall at the time.
“Our thoughts, above all else, are with the families of the victims and the injured,” he said, adding it’s too early to speculate on the cause of the accident.
“We don’t want to go too far ( into this) too rapidly. There will be an investigation by the Transportation Safety Board. It could be pilot errors. It could be anything. We live in a large metropolitan zone, and there will always be a certain amount of aerial traffic, especially with small planes. We have to know that.
“The investigation will look into what happened and why, but today we have to think of the victims and the injured and the people who were in the Promenades St-Bruno.”
Cargair, which was founded in 1961, did not comment when reached by The Canadian Press. The company’s website says it operates two flight- training schools in Mascouche and St- Hubert with a “large fleet of Cessna and Piper aircraft.”