Three Montreal area persons and a Toronto man escaped uninjured Saturday when their single-engine aircraft drifted some 200 miles off course and crashed upon landing at
Bethel, 20 miles west of Saint John.
Pilot Jean-Guy Urbain of 4836 Bois Franc Road, St. Laurent, told investigating police officers that poor visibility caused the aircraft to drift off course, an RCMP spokesman at St. George, N.B., told the
Gazette last night.
Also in the Cherokee aircraft were Miss Jenne Lafabeur of Cartierville; Miss France Ferrand, 3345 Gascon Ave., apt. 7, and Louis Gravel of Toronto.
Urbain, an Air Canada mechanic, told the RCMP that he was bound for Charlo, N.B., a town about 20 miles east of Campbellton, N.B.
The Montreal pilot told RCMP officers that he was forced to make an emergency landing after running low on fuel. The aircraft was owned by Won-Del Aviation Ltd., of Montreal.
An RCMP spokesman said the aircraft's front wheels sank into the soft ground of a blueberry field near Bethel and flipped as it touched ground. The emergency landing took place eight
miles from Pennfield, a former RCAF base.
The Cherokee then slid 25 yards before coming to a stop.
The four occupants crawled out from under the plane, shakened but un-injured, the spokesman said.
The plane was extensively damaged.
Department of Transport officials from Moncton are investigating the forced landing.
SOURCE: The Gazette (Montreal, PQ) - August 18, 1969.
Return to Pennfield Ridge Air Station Newspaper Stories Page
Return to Pennfield Ridge Air Station Page
Return to Pennfield Home Page