Nunavik plane crash victim was “kind, loving and helpful”

Kangirsummiut gathered June 15 to pay their respects to Bobby Drapeau, who local people described as “kind, loving and helpful.” (PHOTO COURTESY OF LUCINA CARRIER)

Robert “Bobby” Drapeau, centre, poses with staff with Kong-struction, a construction company he helped to launch in 2013. (HANDOUT PHOTO)

Residents of Kangirsuk held a memorial service June 15 for one of the victims who died in a June 11 plane crash just outside the Nunavik community.

Kangirsummiut crowded into a local church to say goodbye to Robert Drapeau, who, along with his son Alexandre Veilleux, 23, perished when the Piper 23 twin-engine aircraft they were travelling in hit the ground outside the community late that evening.

The aircraft’s pilot, 77-year-old Jean Robert Corbin, also died in the accident, which is currently under investigation.

The pilot and Drapeau’s son were apparently dropping off Drapeau Sr., a well-known local businessman, who had two young children in Kangirsuk.

Known locally as “Bobby,” Drapeau, 48, was a veteran of the northern construction industry, having spent the last few decades commuting from his home town of Val d’Or, Que., to worksites across Nunavik.

Drapeau was the driving force behind a local construction company, Kong-struction, which launched in Kangirsuk in 2013.

“It started coming together when I was working in Kangirsuk in the summer of 2012,” Drapeau told The Nation, a newspaper serving the Eeyou Istchee region, in an April interview.

“I went up there and started teaching construction to local people. It worked well,” he said. “People who had never worked on heavy machinery were showing up on time every morning. They really wanted to accomplish something.”

The Inuit-owned company now employs 12 local workers, operates a variety of heavy machinery, and has taken a number of contracts doing road work, excavation, crushing and transportation around the region.

Messages from Kangirsummiut flooded Drapeau’s Facebook page this week, thanking the man for all he had invested into their community, calling him a “caring” and “helpful” person.

“I will complete your wish and dream, I will live up to the promises you made me promise,” wrote one young Kong-struction employee.

Drapeau’s leaves behind his partner from Kangirsuk, Kitty Kudluk, and their two adopted daughters.

It’s unclear what caused the plane, believed to have belonged to Drapeau, to go down June 11 just about two kilometres inland of the Ungava Bay community.

The Transportation Safety Board said June 15 it has decided not to conduct a full investigation into the crash.

“We don’t investigate all crashes,” said TSB spokeswoman Julie Leroux. “We don’t think it will advance airline safety.”

Instead, the TSB is working with the Sûreté du Québec provincial police, which has sent an investigator to the Nunavik community to look at the circumstances around the crash, along with the Kativik Regional Police Force and Quebec’s coroner’s office.

The coroner’s investigation is based in Montreal, where the remains of the pilot have been transferred for an autopsy.

“This is usual procedure, to request additional expertise on the [aircraft’s] driver,” said Geneviève Guilbault, a spokesperson for the coroner’s office.

“As experts in transport security, the Transportation Safety Board will bring their expertise to our office by providing the information they will collect on the causes of the accident.”

Guilbault said the coroner’s final report will be available in the coming months.