The crash of an aircraft that left two seriously injured in Montérégie on Friday evening could have involved even more victims, while a small party was taking place near the scene of the tragedy.
• Read also: [IMAGES] A small plane crashes into a residence in Saint-Rémi; 2 seriously injured
“They were making a partythere were almost twenty of them”, relates to the Log Mathieu Dulude, who saw, a little before 7:30 p.m., the device fly over his barn in Saint-Rémi, a small rural municipality of 9,000 inhabitants.
“It could have been [encore plus] serious,” he says.
According to the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), the aircraft got tangled in electrical wires, on rue de l’Église, then damaged a parked car and hit an unoccupied house at the time of the incident.
Two men in their thirties from Montérégie who were on board the aircraft suffered serious injuries.
Saturday afternoon, they were still fighting for their lives, said the SQ.
According to our information, a victim suffered several fractures. She was plunged into a coma before being operated on again.
“The fire was burning”
The people located not far from the scene of the tragedy probably tried everything to save the two young men, indicate the testimonies collected by The newspaper.
“I ran to see, there were three people per guy trying to get them out of the plane,” describes Mathieu Dulude.
“The fire was burning, they took them [finalement] out,” adds the father of two young children.
Like the other people interviewed by The newspaperhe thus witnessed the distress that reigned at the scene of the accident.
André Normandeau also took to his heels to assist the victims, in the moments after seeing the aircraft flying at low altitude.
“The world was screaming like crazy. It was screaming so loud, he says. The police and firefighters had not arrived. It took time.”
Shock and confusion
The neighborhood is also struggling to understand how such an event could have happened, especially since there is no airstrip in the area.
“You see it on TV, [c’est impressionnant], but when it’s next to you, it spanks, it’s weird, says Roger Blais. We don’t know what the cause is.”
During our visit, the damaged carcass had already been recovered by the authorities.
However, the damage could still be seen on the residence where the aircraft ended its course and which was exposed to the flames. The smell of ashes was palpable in the air.
Note that about 2,000 people lost power for a few hours on Friday, as power lines were hit by the device.
SQ major crime investigators will work with the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) to clarify the circumstances of the crash.
“We are aware of the incident and have deployed investigators to the site to carry out a further assessment. We have nothing further to report at this time,” the TSB said by email.
– With Nora T. Lamontagne