Authorities recovered the body of an 83-year-old man more than 18 hours after his ultralight plane crashed near Girardville, Lac-Saint-Jean, due to the difficult-to-reach crash site.

A report was made to the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) around 4 p.m. Thursday evening, since we had not heard from the pilot since he had flown from Chibougamau the day before.

It was finally the armed forces who discovered the plane crashed on the ground around 4 a.m. on Friday morning, near a camp in the forest only accessible by plane or helicopter.

Unable to land due to weather conditions and a lack of fuel, it was finally another helicopter team which had to go to the site around 11 a.m. and was able to confirm the incident.

The body of Germain Bilodeau, the 83-year-old pilot from Chibougamau, was discovered inside the aircraft.

“He was taken to the nearest hospital center, but his death was quickly noted there,” said Christina Lopez, spokesperson for the SQ.

No one else was involved in the tragic incident.