7 dead in Quebec Island crash
 

Toronto Star: 7 people have died in a crash on landing at the Îles-de-la-Madeleine Airport on one of the Magdalen Islands in Quebec. One of the passengers is Jean Lapierre, former Quebec MP and Federal Minister of Transport (2004-6). The aircraft was reportedly a Mitsubishi MU-2B-60.

Sole survivor according to the BBC

the crash survivor died shortly after reaching hospital.

MU2 Crash in Canadian Maritimes
 

MU2 crash in poor wx conditions:

Îles-de-la-Madeleine plane crash leaves 7 dead, including Jean Lapierre - Montreal - CBC News

Nice destination, with quite flat area and approachable airport....

Mu2 are nasty little pieces of equipment.

Looks like an "N" registration MU-2

Family of 5 died on the way to a funeral. Plus 2 pilots.

Crashed 1 mile or so from airport. Moderate winds almost aligned with main runway. Visibility acceptable. OVC002 is probably a problem. Temperature 0 C. Dewpoint 0 C. Don't know if they have an ILS at CYGR. Witness nearby, which is 1 mile from airport, said there was an unusual loud airplane noise before crash; probably due to unusual low altitude compared to typical traffic.

The upper wings detached. The tail and cockpit also detached.

I suspect stall into the ground. But only the final report will finalize the cause.

Localizer approach available. No GS.

CYGR 291700Z 03024G32KT 1 3/4SM -RA BR OVC002 00/M00 A2886 RMK FG2SF6 SLP776
CYGR 291626Z 04024G30KT 1 1/2SM -RA BR OVC002 00/M00 A2884 RMK FG2SF6 SLP770
CYGR 291600Z 04020G28KT 2SM -RA BR OVC002 00/M00 A2884 RMK FG2SF6 SLP769
CYGR 291548Z 04020G27KT 2SM -RA BR OVC002 00/M00 A2884 RMK FG2SF6 SLP768
CYGR 291517Z 05017G27KT 2SM -RA BR BKN002 OVC008 00/M00 A2884 RMK FG2SF5SC1 SLP768
CYGR 291500Z 05018G29KT 2 1/2SM -RA BR BKN002 OVC008 00/M00 A2883 RMK FG2SF5SC1 SLP765

It's early to speculate but I have to wonder about an American registered aircraft doing a "charter" in Canada.

Iles-de-la-Madeleine Crash
 

Jean Lapierre among 7 killed in Îles-de-la-Madeleine plane crash - Montreal - CBC News

An American corporately registered Mitsubishi MU-2B-60 (N246W) from St-Hubert, QC (CYHU) to Iles-de-la-Madeleine, QC (CYGR) crashed approximately 2 NM north of the CYGR airport.

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=185997

7 dead

RIP all...

Apparently it crashed flat onto the ground and bounced to it's final resting place.

According to the media it crashed "aux abords du chemin Richard, de la route 199 et du chemin du Cap-Rouge." which would make it 2 miles from the threshold where the plane would normally be 500 ft above threshold.

A witness said:
" Il a levé les yeux et, à travers le brouillard, a vu ce qu’il ne voulait pas voir. «J’ai regardé et je l’ai vu tomber, comme quand on fait un «flat» sur l’eau, sur le ventre». Il a aussitôt fait le 9-1-1.

L’avion s’est écrasé dans un petit vallon, sur une pente ascendante. «Il a fait un rebond, il s’est affaissé, est retombé et “poufff”, j’ai vu de la boucane. Après, y a plus rien qui bougeait"

Note that the eyewitness quoted puts the crash site south of the runway*, just north of the shoreline, not north of the airport as the linked news item states.

*loosely translated. "in the vicinity of Richard road, Route 199, and Cap-Rouge road."

Most of my turboprop time was in MU2-J's (800 hrs). They were great to fly - most of the time... EXCEPT in icing conditions, then things became hairy!

Maybe CFIT !? There might have been snow everywhere, a whiteout. The ultimate minimum DH was 340 AGL; depending on approach chosen. Ceilings were 200 ft. Maybe freezing rain.

But CFIT would have completely destroyed the airframe at nominal speed.

From what I can tell from the available approaches in Foreflight, the LOC/DME 07 has an MDA off 480 ft which is lower than the RNAV 07 MDA of 620 ft. And that's only an "LNAV" MDA. Neither of which are helpful with the 200 ft OVC in that last Wx.

There is more to this story...

Still to be determined if true but sources say that the reason the aircraft was still "American registered" was it could not meet the technical requirements to be a "Canadian" registered MU-2.

Also at first it was mentioned that the aircraft was chartered which would have been illegal with an "N" tail in Canada but it now seems the owner of the aircraft which may have been one of the pilots onboard was a friend of M. Lapierre and to help him get to his dad's funeral decided to fly him and his party into the island.

The reason this came about was that Air Canada/Jazz had apparently cancelled their flights into the island because of the bad weather which incidentally got worse after the crash... Very sad story.

There is more to this story...

Still to be determined if true but sources say that the reason the aircraft was still "American registered" was it could not meet the technical requirements to be a "Canadian" registered MU-2.

Also at first it was mentioned that the aircraft was chartered which would have been illegal with an "N" tail in Canada but it now seems the owner of the aircraft which may have been one of the pilots onboard was a friend of M. Lapierre and to help him get to his dad's funeral decided to fly him and his party into the island.

The reason this came about was that Air Canada/Jazz had apparently cancelled their flights into the island because of the bad weather which incidentally got worse after the crash... Very sad story.

I can't imagine what M.Lapierre's mother is going through at the moment - this so soon after losing her husband. :uhoh:

I don't know much about the MU-2B, so I did a little research on faa.gov, and what I found there is a bit alarming. For example, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) wrote to the FAA, asking them to ground the MU-2B after a fatal crash near Denver in 2004. He says the plane has a poor reputation (with a bad nickname), and refers to NTSB stats and airworthiness directives about it. The FAA issued SFAR 108 in 2005, requiring pilots to have a type rating on the MU-2, and as of 2010 the results appear to have been positive.

Weather like that? Not the plane's fault...

With a N registration and probable recent purchase maybe the pilot/owner, with 2400 hrs total, had very few hours on that type of plane.

With a wing on top how is its stall characteristics ? Does it tend to roll less and flat stall ? Or is it still a nervous excessive roller ?

Also there was an extreme low pressure of A2884 over the airport. Improper altimeter setting ? Accidental altimeter setting of A2984 would have caused the plane to fly 1000 ft lower than indicated.