The pilot of an aircraft that participated in a Remembrance Day ceremony Wednesday died after it crashed near Saint-Georges, south of Quebec City, officials confirmed.
Quebec provincial police (SQ) said the crash happened at around 11 a.m. and there was only one person aboard the aircraft.
The pilot was declared dead at the scene. Police said there were no other victims.
The crash involved a small aircraft that had just participated in a Remembrance Day commemoration, the City of Saint-Georges said in a statement.
SQ spokesperson Audrey-Anne Bilodeau said the pilot had been flying with a group of other planes when his aircraft went down.
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
The small plane came down in a wooded area near the Saint-Georges airport and caught fire after the crash, the city said. The crash happened as the pilot was approaching the airport to land.
Police identified the victim as a man in his 60s who lived in the region.
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Dominique Maheux, who lives near the Saint-Georges airport, said she looked outside after hearing the sound of planes flying by and saw one of them veer to the right before plunging toward the ground.
“I thought, ‘Where is it going?’” Maheux said. “Then it disappeared into the trees, and I saw a ball of fire, followed by black smoke.”
“It all happened in three seconds.”
“What happened is really sad and terrible,” Saint-Georges Mayor Manon Bougie said.
Beauce resident Mélanie Quirion said she saw six planes flying overhead at about 10:50 a.m., roughly 10 minutes before the crash. At that point, “everything seemed normal,” she said.
A crashed aircraft lies behind a house in St-Georges de Beauce, Que., Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026.
Jacques Boissinot/ The Canadian Press
Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon offered his condolences following the crash.
“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.”
St-Pierre Plamondon said he was working with the province’s domestic security minister to gather more information about what happened.
The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) said Transportation Safety Board investigators have been deployed to the scene of the small aircraft accident to gather information and assess what happened.
CAF told Global News the aircraft did not belong to them and no Armed Forces personnel were involved.
“Our thoughts are with the family and loved ones of the pilot who tragically lost their life. We extend our deepest condolences to all those affected by this tragic incident,” the CAF said in a statement.
Federal National Defence Minister David McGuinty also issued a statement expressing his condolences to the pilot’s family and loved ones, saying his thoughts were with everyone affected by the tragedy.
The cause of the crash is not yet known.
Bilodeau said the SQ’s major crime unit was investigating the crash for any possible criminal elements, though she noted crashes such as this are rarely linked to a crime.
Saint-Georges is located roughly 100 kilometres southeast of Quebec City.
— With files from The Canadian Press
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