MONTREAL—Tragedy struck the tight-knit world of Canadian politics Tuesday after a plane crashed in Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Que., killing former federal Liberal cabinet minister Jean Lapierre, four members of his family and the two pilots of the aircraft.

The crash, which occurred as the chartered airplane was approaching the runway in poor weather conditions, was devastating for the Lapierre clan — those killed were on their way back to the remote island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence to attend the funeral of Lapierre’s 83-year-old father, who had just died after suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

Late Tuesday night, the Quebec coroner’s office confirmed at in addition to Lapierre, the dead included: his wife, Nicole Beaulieu; his sister, Martine Lapierre; his two brothers, Marc and Louis Lapierre; as well as the pilots Pascal Gosselin and Fabrice Labourel.

Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre, who sat in the Liberal cabinet along with Lapierre between 2004 and 2007, said: “Jean had antennas everywhere in the world of politics” — something that was key to his success in his post-politics career as an analyst and commentator on Quebec radio and television.

“People were not scared to confide in him, to ‘go in the confession booth,’ as he liked to say. He maintained his neutrality and spared no one in his commentary, not even his former colleagues,” Coderre said in a statement.

Indeed, once his death was confirmed Tuesday afternoon after hours of rumour and speculation, tributes poured in from Liberal and Conservative prime ministers, from sovereigntists who briefly called Lapierre a colleague in the lead-up to the 1995 Quebec referendum, and from the media world, which also claimed Lapierre as one of their own when he quit elected politics for good.

The federal Transportation Safety Board will be probing the cause of the crash, but a team of investigators was unable to depart Tuesday for the crash site due to the poor weather conditions, which included snow and driving winds, said Chris Krepski, a spokesperson with the agency.

The airplane carrying Lapierre and his family members was an American-registered Mitsubishi MU-2B-60, a twin-engine turboprop. It departed St-Hubert airport, south of Montreal at about 9:30 a.m. local time.

Sgt. Daniel Thibaudeau, a spokesperson with the Sûreté du Québec, said that a call alerting officers to the accident came in at about 11:40 a.m. local time.

Reaction to Lapierre's death

Réginald Poirier, who owns the Domaine Du Vieux Couvent hotel located southwest of the crash site, estimated that the plane crashed about four kilometres from the runway in Havre-aux-Maisons. He said officials were keeping locals away from the wreckage Tuesday evening.

“They were probably close to landing,” Poirier said in an interview.

He said that earlier on Tuesday “the winds were bad for sure. The wind might have pushed the plane down earlier than it was supposed to.”

Another witness, Frédéric Duval, told the TVA network that he is used to hearing airplanes passing overhead during their landing approach because he lives close to the island’s airport.

“I was doing the dishes and I heard the sound, but much louder than usual and I said to myself: ‘That’s not normal,’” he said. “I looked and I saw the airplane crash into a field behind my house.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Where the crash happened

Jonathan Lapierre, the mayor of Îles-de-la-Madeleine, said in an interview that the force of the crash tore the airplane into three separate pieces.

“The impact was very violent,” he said.

Like everyone else, Lapierre — who is not related to any of the deceased — is anxious to know the cause of the crash, whether it was due to a mechanical failure, a health problem with one of the two pilots, or strong wind and blowing snows.

“The weather was absolutely not favourable,” he said.

By time the mayor arrived at the crash site emergency crews were already on the scene.

Six of the passengers were already dead by the time that first responders arrived, Benoit Leblanc, a supervisor with the local ambulance service told radio station FM93. He said that a seventh person who was critically injured was resuscitated, but eventually died in hospital.

Read more about: