8. Guay’s Efforts Come to Naught
September 9th, 1949, was a beautiful day in Quebec, as Canadian Pacific Airlines Flight 108 flew through clear skies. Suddenly, at about 10:45 AM, an explosion rocked the airplane, and it came plummeting to the ground, crashing into a wooded hillside named Cap Tourmente. The very fact that it landed on the ground doomed Joseph-Albert Guay, who had timed his bomb to explode when the airplane was flying over the Saint Lawrence River – forensics back then could not determine the cause of the crash if the plane had disappeared in the water. However, a flight delay threw off the schedule.
With 23 fatalities, including three children, it was Canada’s deadliest plane crash. As investigators swarmed over the debris, it did not take them long to determine from dynamite residue and eyewitnesses on the ground who had heard and seen an explosion before the crash, that the plane had been deliberately blown up. Guay made it easy for them to determine who did it.