Float Plane Crash In Newfoundland Leaves 3 People Dead, 4 People Remain Missing
On Monday, July 15, a small floatplane in Newfoundland carrying seven people crashed into a Labrador lake in Canada. The plane was operated by a small Quebec airline, Air Saguenay, who has confirmed the crash.
The crash reportedly killed three of the passengers aboard, and four are still missing. The plane was carrying four fishermen, two guides, and the pilot.
Jean Tremblay, president of Air Saguenay, confirmed the deaths this morning on Tuesday, July 16. He said the fate of the other four people is unclear.
The plane was travelling from a fishing lodge near Crossroads Lake, near the Quebec border, to a remote camp on Mistastin Lake in northern Labrador. It was scheduled to be back at Crossroads Lake by 6 PM.
The Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) then got a call at 11:30 PM about a de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver floatplane being overdue. A Hercules airplane was sent out as soon as the call came in. It spotted the wreckage at 5 AM.
With hopes of finding survivors, Air Saguenay has sent a second plane to fly to Mistastin Lake.
The Armed Forces told CBC that it's too early to know what happened to the other four people.
Maj. Mark Gough said, "We don't know that yet. We won't know until our guys are on the ground in the next little while and they do the search for any possible survivors."
The cause of the crash is unknown. Officials with the Canadian Transport Safety Board have been called in to investigate.
According to CBC, this is the third fatal crash since 2010 of an Air Saguenay DHC-2 Beaver.
On July 16, 2010, one of these planes crashed into a mountainside near Lake Péribonka, QC in bad weather. Six people were on board; four of them were killed.
Then in 2015, an Air Saguenay flight crashed into a remote wooded area near Les Bergeronnes, QC. This killed all six passengers on board.
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