The pilot of a small plane, intending to land at the Iroquois airport, crash-landed in the St. Lawrence River west of the Iroquois beach shortly before 9:40 a.m. Monday.
Among the first to the crash-landing scene were Dylan Picotte, Maiah Horne, Quinn Horne and Sophia Currier, lifeguards at the Iroquois beach.
Picotte, who was in the midst of conducting swimming lessons at the beach, noticed the plane coming from the west.
He saw it come around to land at the Iroquois airstrip, but the pilot chose not to land on his first time by. As it swung around again to make another attempt, something went wrong and the plane crashed in the water.
Maiah and Quinn Horne said their initial thought was that the pilot was intending to land in the water. But, Currier pointed out that the plane had wheels and what they were in fact seeing was a plane crash.
“It went nose first into the water,” said Currier.
With that realization, the lifeguards took immediate action, paddling the beach rescue boards out to the downed plane.
Picotte grabbed the first aid kit and headed on foot along the shore nearer the crash site.
A nearby boater, who was fishing, had witnessed the scene and headed immediately to the plane, and was first to arrive. That boater was Clare Tatton. “I was glad the pilot was okay,” he said.
Upon assessing the situation, the lifeguards and boater worked to get the pilot, who was alone in the aircraft, to leave the plane so they could get him to shore.
“That was hard to do,” said Picotte. “He was pretty shaken up. He only had a small scrape over his eye, but he didn’t want to leave his plane. It took a lot of convincing, but the girls eventually coaxed him out of the plane.”
“He was pretty determined about his plane,” added Currier.
Tatton towed the plane and took the pilot closer to shore.
Picotte talked to the pilot, who told him that he was coming from Brockville way, and had intended to land at the Iroquois air strip.
On his first approach he thought there were too many seagulls on the strip, so he decided to loop around to make a second attempt.
However, when he came around again, the engine shut off, so he was looking for a place to land and was forced to the water.
While all this was taking place in the water, emergency officials including ambulance, fire and police arrived on scene. The police and fire rescue boats attended.
Also, circling above and drawing the attention of many area residents was a Royal Canadian Air Forces C-130H Hercules aircraft that made some low passes.
The pilot of the small plane was taken to hospital by ambulance.
Lisa Vreman, who was at the beach for her children’s swimming lessons, said she didn’t see the plane go down, but she heard it. She said that a man at the beach immediately called 911.
“The lifeguards went out right away. They took quick action, and I was really pleased to see that,” she said.
The single-piston powered aircraft was built in 1979, and is registered to James Scoles of Ottawa. It is not known if Scoles was the pilot.
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