Pilot Killed as Plane From Remembrance Day 'Missing Man' Flyover Crashes in Quebec

A pilot was killed Wednesday when a small plane that had just taken part in a Remembrance Day flyover crashed in a wooded area of Saint-Georges, a town in Quebec's Beauce region about 100 kilometers south of Quebec City, according to police and the province's premier.

The plane was one of six aircraft flying the Missing Man formation, the traditional aerial salute to the fallen, over the town's ceremony at Place des vétérans, Mayor Manon Bougie told CBC News. The local news site EnBeauce reported that the crash happened after the formation passed over the ceremony, as the planes headed back toward the airport, and the city's fire service told The Canadian Press the pilot was on approach to land.

Officers with the Sûreté du Québec, the provincial police, were alerted around 11 a.m.. The aircraft went down near 10th Street, close to the Saint-Georges airport, and caught fire on impact. The pilot, the only person aboard, was first reported seriously injured; police confirmed his death shortly before 1:30 p.m.. Police described him only as a man in his 60s from the region and have not released his name. No one on the ground was reported hurt.

A neighbor told CBC he heard the impact and saw flames roughly 100 feet from his house. Another resident told The Canadian Press that six planes passed overhead at about 10:50 a.m. and nothing looked out of the ordinary.

Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon announced the pilot's death on X shortly after 1 p.m., offered his condolences to the family and said he was following the situation with Public Security Minister Guy Lapointe Jr.. Bougie was too shaken to deliver the speech she had prepared for the ceremony, EnBeauce reported. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and other federal and provincial leaders also posted messages of sympathy.

The aircraft's type and owner have not been made public, and no report has tied the flight to the Royal Canadian Air Force.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has sent a team to the crash site, and police have set up a large security perimeter. A board spokesperson said there was no further information yet, and the cause of the crash remains unknown.

The crash came on a Remembrance Day already weighed down by grief. In Ottawa, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Governor General Louise Arbour joined the national ceremony at the National War Memorial, where CF-18 fighters flew past and the country also remembered four soldiers killed in a recent fire at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright, CBC reported.

In Saint-Georges, a town that gathered to honor those who served and did not come home now mourns one of the men who flew in their honor. Our prayers are with his family and with the community of the Beauce.

We will update this story as police and safety investigators release more information, including the pilot's identity and the aircraft involved.