A devastating aviation incident has claimed four lives after a private helicopter went down in a small Quebec community located roughly 31 miles outside of Montreal, provincial law enforcement confirmed to the BBC.
Local emergency responders were dispatched to Sainte-Brigide-d’Iberville just after 2:30 p.m. local time on Saturday, which corresponds to 6:30 p.m. GMT. Upon arrival at the scene, crews found the downed aircraft fully engulfed in flames, and all four people on board were pronounced dead at the site.
Quebec Provincial Police Sergeant Audrey-Anne Bilodeau confirmed that the victims have not yet been formally identified, and preliminary assessments indicate the helicopter was privately owned. The crash occurred near Rang des Écossais road, just off of Highway 10, according to official police updates.
The response operation was initiated after an emergency caller reported a helicopter in distress that had reportedly crashed and ignited a fire. By roughly one hour after the initial emergency call, crews had succeeded in bringing the blaze under control. However, investigative and response teams remained on location working well into the evening, with personnel still conducting operations shortly before 10:00 p.m. local time.
Sergeant Bilodeau noted that the process of formally identifying the deceased may extend over several days, as officials work to next-of-kin notification and evidence collection.
The probe into the cause of the crash is being led by the Major Crime Unit of the Sûreté du Québec, Quebec’s provincial police force. Investigators from the unit are partnering with specialized crime scene technicians as well as aviation safety investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada to piece together what led to the accident.