Four Brits, one French national, local pilot among victims in Quebec plane crash

QUEBEC – The Quebec coroner’s office has formally identified the six people who perished when a sightseeing seaplane crashed in a remote area of Quebec’s North Shore on Sunday.

The Air Saguenay plane was taking part in a routine sightseeing flight from Lac Long in Tadoussac when it went down, killing everyone on board.

The victims have been identified as Fiona Hewitt, 52, Richard Hewitt, 50, Felicity Hewitt, 17 and Harry Hewitt, 14, all of Great Britain.

A fifth tourist was identified as Emilie Delaitre, 28, of France.

The pilot, Romain Desrosiers, 44, was from the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region.

The airline’s vice-president said the flight was only supposed to last 20 minutes and weather conditions appeared to have been “perfect” at the time.

Jean Tremblay also said Desrosiers had more than 6,000 hours of flying experience, all of them with Air Saguenay, where he had worked for 14 years.

The Transportation Safety Board and Quebec provincial police are continuing their investigation today.

There was no flight recorder inside the seaplane, but it is not necessary to have a black box for this type of aircraft, built in the 1950s.

A TSB spokesman says they hope to move the wreckage, but no timetable has been set due to weather conditions in the area complicating what will be a delicate recovery operation.

The plane crashed in a wooded area and was discovered resting against a mountainside.