Very sad news today  ...  
Quote:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...hub=TopStories
Cdn. peacekeeper among nine dead in Sinai crash
Updated Sun. May. 6 2007 11:04 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
A Canadian is among nine foreign peacekeepers killed Sunday when their aircraft crashed in a remote, rugged corner of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.
The Canadian has been identified as Cpl. Benoit Chevalier, 25, from 3 Wing Bagotville in Quebec.
His hometown is Macamic, Que., about 650 kilometres northwest of Montreal, reports a Saguenay, Que. newspaper.
Canada's Department of National Defence says Chevalier was an air traffic controller assigned to Task Force El Gorah (TFEG).
"He was one of a team of six air traffic controllers deployed to provide flight following services for the MFO" -- the Multinational Forces and Observers -- said the release.
"He was on board to familiarize himself with the Twin Otter aircraft operations and to liaise with air traffic controllers at St. Catherine's airport in Sinai, Egypt."
The crash killed Chevalier and eight of the 15-member French peacekeeping contingent, and destroyed the mission's sole fixed-wing aircraft, said MFO spokesperson Normand St. Pierre.
A "higher than normal" load of passengers and crew were aboard the aircraft at the time of the crash during a training mission, St. Pierre said.
The plane, a Canadian-built DeHavilland DHC-6 Twin Otter, went down in the middle of the Sinai Peninsula near the village of el-Thamad, about 80 kilometres southeast of a town called Nakhl.
The MFO says the plane was trying to make an emergency landing on a highway when it clipped a truck and crashed nearby.
"Witnesses say they saw the plane flying quite low. They saw smoke, they saw flames," said CTV's Middle East Bureau Chief Janis Mackey Frayer.
"A wing of the plane actually hit the top of a truck on the highway, suggesting that the plane possibly had mechanical problems and was trying to make an emergency landing on that highway."
The weather was sunny and clear when the plane took off at 7:46 a.m. local time from El Gorah base -- the northern headquarters of the peacekeeping mission -- on its way to St. Catherine's airport in the southern Sinai Peninsula.
The airport lost radio contact with the plane at about 9:15 a.m., then received a distress signal indicating possible mechanical failure, before the plane crashed into a mountain, Capt. Ihab Moheildin, the air control officer at Cairo airport, told The Associated Press.
Ahmad Attallah, a truck driver who was in the area told AP he saw the plane on its way down.
"I looked up and saw a small plane with a trail of flame and smoke flying at a low altitude and then it disappeared and I heard an explosion," he said.
Twenty-eight Canadian Forces personnel are part of the multi-national force -- an independent international organization created by Egypt and Israel to monitor their border in the Sinai after a 1979 peace deal.
The MFO is also comprised of soldiers from the U.S., France, Australia, Columbia, Fiji, Hungary, Italy, New Zealand, Uruguay, and Norway.
Chevalier played 'key role'
Colonel Peter Abbott, Commander of Task Force El Gorah, said Chevalier was a "highly appreciated and skilled member" of the Canadian team assigned to the MFO.
"He was playing a key role in maintaining the cohesiveness of the Canadian contingent and his comrades regarded him as an extremely personable, thoughtful and professional airman."
Col. Pierre Ruel, 3 Wing Bagotville commanding officer, told a news conference Sunday that Chevalier joined the Canadian Forces five years ago, transferring to his unit in July 2003.
He said Chevalier's body would be brought to Ottawa then Macamic, but couldn't confirm a date.
The Governor General and Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered their condolences to the families, friends, and colleagues of Chevalier, as well as to those of the eight French military personnel.
Michaelle Jean said she is deeply saddened by the news of the terrible accident.
"Corporal Chevalier served our country with distinction and honour," Harper said in a statement.
In France, President Jacques Chirac expressed similar sentiments about his country's dead personnel.
With files from the Canadian Press and the Associated Press
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