The daughter of the veteran airline pilot who died this afternoon when her pleasure helicopter exploded mid-flight saw her father die before her eyes as she filmed the tragic scene.
“The helicopter exploded in flight. I have it live on my videos”, confided to the Log late afternoon Vicky Desmarais, 40, on her way to identify the body of her father, Sylvain.
The homebuilt RotorWay helicopter belonging to the 64-year-old reportedly gained altitude before catching fire, his daughter said. He then crashed heavily to the ground. It was early afternoon, it was around 12:40 p.m.
The 60-year-old, alone on board, was flying over agricultural land located on 10th range, in the municipality of Lefebvre, a little south of Drummondville.
Photo taken from Facebook
Sylvain Desmarais
Technical problem
According to his daughter, the homemade multi-seat aircraft had a problem during a practice flight, for the simple pleasure of the experienced pilot.
“His helicopters are his toys when he was having fun at home,” she said. We were doing round-up on a device. It’s a technical failure. »
Ms. Desmarais also made it clear that her father had a remarkable background as a pilot, and that he was not just a farmer who flew over his land.
“It wasn’t a two of spades who didn’t know what to do with a plane,” she said confidently. He is a professional pilot who had fun, because it was his pleasure, his passion. »
Photo taken from Facebook
Vicky Desmarais, daughter of Sylvain Desmarais, airplane pilot
Death of his passion
Sylvain Desmarais had, according to his daughter, more than 47 years of flight experience, including forty years as a pilot who put out fires.
“He was flying CL-415s. He had his international licenses,” she listed.
“He had also been flying helicopters for three years,” continued Ms. Desmarais.
The latter described her father as a piano player, a born farmer and above all a smiling, jovial “gentleman”, who was “always inclined to laugh”.
Barely hours after the tragedy, there was only one thing that made the victim’s daughter happy.
“My father died doing what he loved doing most in the world,” she concluded.
An investigation has been opened to establish the exact circumstances of the crash.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada will also be notified of the incident and is expected to dispatch investigators to the scene.
