UPPER
QUEBEC PROVINCE, CANADA - An emergency demolition
project related to a bizarre plane crash has reportedly
set a new world record for tallest structure ever
explosively demolished.
On Sunday, April 22nd 2001, 38-year old Gilbert
Paquette was killed when his single-engine Cessna
150 struck a 1,217-foot tall communications tower
while flying in heavy fog over a remote region of
upper Quebec Province.
At
first, local townspeople and rescue crews were
perplexed by the lack of debris at the crash scene.
It wasn’t until several hours later that
a policeman poring over the site happened to look
upward and notice the aircraft’s main fuselage
firmly wedged into the tower approximately 1,100
feet above the ground. Within a short time, the
local coroner had surveyed the wreckage via helicopter
and pronounced Mr. Paquette deceased.
Beyond
the obvious human tragedy, tower technicians dispatched
to the site described the accident as a “technological
nightmare.” The plane’s impact had knocked
the massive structure several feet off-center,
affecting Quebec’s primary Canadian Broadcasting
Company transmission point as well as a host of
radio station, GPS and cell-phone transmitters.
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