LES BERGERONNES, Que. — Quebec provincial police say four people are dead and two others are missing after a seaplane crashed on the province’s North Shore.
Police have said the Air Saguenay plane carrying six people went down in a wooded area on Sunday, six kilometres from the community of Bergeronnes.
Surete du Quebec spokesman Jean Tremblay says a search is underway for the two who are missing.
Provincial police say they were contacted Sunday afternoon and were told the plane could not be found.
They say the wreckage was not accessible by road, and was located with the help of parachutists from the Canadian Armed Forces.
The Transportation Safety Board has sent a team of investigators to the crash site, where they will determine the best way to reach the aircraft.
Canadian Armed Forces search and rescue and Air Force personnel are aiding in the rescue and recovery efforts.
Air Saguenay vice-president Jean Tremblay said the Beaver seaplane was taking part in a routine sightseeing flight departing from Lac Long in Tadoussac.
Tremblay told The Canadian Press on Monday the flight was only supposed to last 20 minutes. It wasn’t windy and visibility was clear on Sunday.
“It was perfect conditions,” Tremblay said, who offered his sympathies to families who lost loved ones in the crash.
The pilot of the aircraft had more than 6,000 hours of flying experience — all with Air Saguenay, where he’d worked for the past 14 years.
Tremblay said the Beaver seaplane had about 25,000 hours of flight time.
The airline upgraded its security system after another of its seaplanes crashed in bad weather in 2010, killing four of the six people on board.
It describes itself as an airline which provides charters for fishing, hunting and mining exploration.