Monday, August 2, 2010

FLIGHT 621 : Brampton (Toronto/GTA's) WORST Aviation Disaster - Denise Goulet

MY RESEARCH PARTNER out in Quebec, Pierre Tremblay, who has done extensive research on all Flight 621 victims from the province of Quebec, disclosed to me that he had actually known Denise Goulet (pictured above) back in the summer of 1967!

Pierre had spent a good part of his summer at EXPO 67 which was being held in Montreal. He went several times to the Bell Canada Telephone Pavilion, and there chatted with the ever cheerful hostess Denise, as he was then fascinated by telecommunication.

And maybe a little by her, as well.

The crash of Flight 621, of course, was front page news in the Montréal-Matin on July 6th, 1970, the day after the crash.

Pierre saw the Montréal-Matin crash headline, and was immediately riveted by the coverage of this unexpected Air Canada crash that had occurred the previous morning, on the clearest of days, somewhere in the Toronto region. Still in a state of shock and wonder about the horrific DC-8 crash that had claimed all 109 lives, he quickly read through the front page coverage and followed up on page three. There, his eyes fell on those ominous row pictures of the now deceased Air Canada flight crew, and its stewardesses.

One picture stood out.

Pierre was floored!

There was Denise!!

Oh, poor Denise—

While Pierre had met the exotically attractive Denise when she was then working at the EXPO 67 Bell Canada pavilion, she had already applied to, and been accepted to take the stewardess course. Immediate employment for Denise in the fall, at Air Canada, once EXPO 67 had wrapped up in October.

Aviation, not tele-communications, was Denise's first love.

At 17, Denise already had her first parachute jump under her belt.

And while Miss Denise Goulet had been working as a stewardess for Air Canada for almost three years, she had set her sights on being a pilot!

And guess what? Her father, Henri-Paul, was a pilot!

I guess the apple didn't fall too far from the tree, as they say…

When her father was reached for comment on his daughter's premature death, he told the media,

“Denise always dreamt of aviation. Aviation was in her blood.”

Mr. Goulet, himself a pilot for 25 years, was on duty the morning of the crash when he learned about the terrible tragedy. Henri-Paul was a pilot for the Yvon Fournier company from Trois-Rivières, and had to sprinkle insecticide on the transmission lines of Alcan in Lac St. Jean.

Denise, who was to be 23 on July 12, died seven days short of her birthday.

She had made special arrangements to be aboard the Air Canada "California Galaxy" (Montreal-Toronto-Los Angeles) flight, one of the airlines' new connoisseur flights, in order to meet with her brother, Andre. She was looking forward to journeying to Los Angeles to see her brother, who now resided there. She was going to take a few days off.

In August, Denise was quite excited to be travelling to Paris, with her mother, on an already arranged vacation for the pair.

It was not to be.

On July 10th, sadly just two days before she was to have turned 23, a funeral mass was held for Denise at 10.00 A.M. at St. Odilon Catholic Church, in Cap-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec. There was a large turn out of family and friends to pay their final respects.

Had Denise not died that day, today she would be 62 years old.

And now she looks back at us from eternity, forever only twenty-two…

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey there!

Being a Toronto native, I've recently discovered the subject of Flight 621.

You've got a very interesting blog here with some really amazing pics of debris. Unreal how stuff still surfaces today.

I like the book cover you posted on July 30 - very horrifying and eye-catching. How terrified must those people have been.

How easy is it to visit the site? How does one go about doing so?

I'd like to check it out before construction starts on the new units.

Thanks,

Jan Burton (jburton02@hotmail.com)

Anonymous said...

I was deeply moved this morning when I received an email from my daughter telling me she had stumbled across an article about my sister's death. Thank you very much for the kind words. Unfortunately, I don't know Mr Pierre Tremblay nor the blogger, but I would like to hear more about Mr Tremblay's encounter with my sister Denise. Even though I am the youngest of the family, Denise and I shared a deep and special bond, and not a day has gone by since July 5, 1970 without a thought for her. I was 11 years old, alone with my mother on that awful day and I sadly answered the call from an Air Canada representative confirming my sister's tragic death. My dad would have loved to read your article but he died last year.
En espérant que M. Pierre Tremblay lise mon commentaire et souhaite me contacter, je laisse cette adresse: gouletlouise@cgocable.ca

Loulou said...

Just testing!

Loulou said...

This is my third try since I am not familiar with blogs. I was deeply moved this morning when I received an email from my daughter telling me she had stumbled across a blog on my sister's death. Thanks for the kind words. Unfortunately, I don't know Mr Pierre Tremblay nor the blogger, but I would like to know more about Mr Tremblay's encounter with my sister Denise. Even though I am the youngest of the family, Denise and I shared a deep and special bond, and not a day has gone by since July 5, 1970 without a thought for her. I was 11 years old, alone with my mother on that awful day when I sadly answered the call from an Air Canada representative confirming Denise's tragic death. My dad would have loved to read your article but he died last year.
En espérant que M. Pierre Tremblay lise mon commentaire et souhaite me contacter, je laisse une adresse: gouletlouise@cgocable.ca

Unknown said...

July 9 2017

I remember Denise very well. Reading Pierre Tremblay's touching story brought tears to my eyes. I'll never forget that terrible day. My brother Luke was in California with Andre. Andre had driven to to LAX with my brother's Mustang to pick up Denise and they were going to spend time together visiting California.

Denise accomplished a lot in the short twenty two years of her life and was on her way to realizing her dream of becoming a pilot. We will never forget her! Thanks for remembering her! I love the beautiful painting of her with the DC8.

Our thoughts are with the Goulet family. We wish them well.

Alan Gruninger
Vancouver
(gruninger@hotmail.com)