A pilot who was taking place in a Remembrance Day ceremony died on Wednesday after his plane crashed south of Quebec City at around 11 a.m., police said.
Provincial police spokesperson Audrey-Anne Bilodeau said the pilot was flying with a group of other planes when his aircraft went down in St-Georges-de-Beauce, in the Chaudière-Appalaches region south of the provincial capital.
Dominique Maheux, who lives near the airport in St-Georges, says she looked out her patio door when she heard the sound of planes flying by.
She then saw one veer to the right and plunge toward the ground.
“I thought, ‘Where is it going?’” she said. “Then it disappeared into the trees, and I saw a ball of fire, followed by black smoke.
“It all happened in three seconds.”
Bilodeau identified the victim as a man in his 60s who lived in the region.
The pilot was declared dead at the scene, she said, after the small, privately owned plane went down in a wooded area.
Police said there were no other victims.
Beauce resident Mélanie Quirion said she’d seen six planes flying overhead at 10:50 a.m., about 10 minutes before the crash.
At that time, “everything seemed normal,” she said in a Facebook message.
The City of St-Georges said in a news release that the small plane had crashed into the wooded area near the airport and had caught fire.
The crash happened as the pilot was approaching the airport to land after participating in a Remembrance Day activity, the city said.
“What happened is really sad and terrible,” wrote Mayor Manon Bougie.
Several politicians, including Quebec Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, offered their condolences to friends and family of the pilot.
“I have just learned of the death of the plane’s pilot,” St-Pierre Plamondon wrote on social media.
“I would like to express my sincere condolences to their family and loved ones.”
An officer points toward a crashed aircraft that lies behind a house in St-Georges de Beauce, Que. Wednesday Nov. 11, 2026. Quebec provincial police say one person is dead after a plane crashed south of Quebec City at around 11 a.m.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot
Federal National Defence Minister David McGuinty also issued a statement expressing his sympathies to the pilot’s family and loved ones, saying his thoughts were with everyone affected by the tragedy.
St-Pierre Plamondon said he is working with the province’s domestic security minister to gather more information on the crash.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada confirmed it was deploying a team of investigators to the site of a small aircraft accident. A spokesperson said there was no further information available at the moment.
Bilodeau said the provincial police’s major crime unit was investigating the crash for criminal elements, though she said crashes like this are rarely linked to a crime.
This report by The Canadian Press was first reported Nov. 11, 2026.
A crashed aircraft lies behind a house in St-Georges de Beauce, Que., Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. Quebec provincial police say one person is dead after a plane crashed south of Quebec City at around 11 a.m.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot
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