2009Q0800
Date: 2009/05/04
Location: Yamaska River, PQ
Fatalities: 2
Injuries:
CADORS: 2009Q0800
TSB: A09Q0065
TSB O/C: 3
Working: Yes
News: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Divers+recover+second+body+from+Yamaska+crash/1563618/story.html
Divers recover second body from Yamaska crash
By Jan Ravensbergen,
The Gazette
May 5, 2009
MONTREAL - The small plane that crashed into the Yamaska River on Monday afternoon, killing flight instructor Raphaël Mazué and student pilot Ana-Maria Preda, was not flying in a zone with a minimum height requirement, a Montreal private pilot said Tuesday.
“As long as you are not over a populated area, you can go as low as you want,” said the pilot, who spoke on condition his name not be published.
Pilots are obliged to stay above 500 feet when over residential zones outside metropolitan areas, he added.
For undetermined reasons, the plane swooped low enough to be knocked out of the sky. It apparently clipped a telephone or electrical line strung across the river, Sûreté du Québec Sgt. Marc Butz said, citing a witness.
Investigators from the federal Transportation Safety Board arrived Tuesday at the crash site, near the town of St. Louis, 60 kilometres east of Montreal.
Preda’s body was found on the riverbed about 15 metres from the submerged plane, after a sonar search of the murky water Tuesday. Her remains were retrieved about 3:30 p.m., almost 23 hours after she managed to escape the sinking plane, only to perish in the river’s frigid waters.
Preda, 21, had been working as a flight attendant with Sunwing Airlines “up until about a month ago,” said Sam Char, Sunwing’s executive director for Quebec.
“All the people she worked with say she was a very nice person,” a shocked Char added.
“This is so tragic, very unfortunate.”
The body of Mazué, a 35-year-old instructor at Air Richelieu of St. Hubert, had been retrieved Monday night from the submerged cabin of the two-seat plane.
The battered Cessna 150 Commuter was finally pulled to the surface and onto dry land late yesterday afternoon. It will be taken to Ottawa for study, Butz said.
Air Richelieu officials were not available for comment.
Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette
