I’m often asked how I got into aircraft ground deicing. Deicing’s a shockingly random and niche segment of the aviation industry after all and not typically one that people aspire to, and I’m not the exception. And while there are probably a few good deicing-related stories to tackle in future posts, I’m going to veer sharply to the left with this post and focus on how I got into aviation instead of deicing, because this is a far more intriguing story and one that very few people outside of my inner circle know about.

The origin of my family’s roots in aviation dates back a full 70 years ago to 1954. My father Denis was only 10 years old at the time his Aunt Irene married a gentleman named Gaetan Deshaies. Gaetan was a bon vivant as we say in French, someone who lived well and a tad closer to the edge, and my father became very enamoured with his uncle and his uncle’s fast and adventurous lifestyle. Our family scrapbook contains many photos of Gaetan waterskiing and riding horses and motorcycles and posing with various trophies from his frequent hunting expeditions.

According to family legend, Gaetan was riding his motorcycle across the Jacques Cartier Bridge in Montreal as the bridge structure was being repainted, and paint fell onto the road below making it slick, resulting in an accident that left Gaetan slightly injured. In the ensuing insurance claim and lawsuit, Gaetan made out with a few thousand dollars and decided to buy a Republic RC-3 Seabee amphibious aircraft.

The Seabee was a single-engine aircraft designed in the 1940s as an affordable, all-purpose aircraft for transportation and recreational purposes, perfect for an outdoorsy hunting enthusiast like Gaetan. When production stopped in 1948, over a thousand SeaBees had been built and many aircraft remain flying today, despite the aircraft’s reputation as being underpowered, a tad heavy on the controls, and reasonably difficult to fly. Gaetan’s aircraft, serial number 576, rolled off the factory floor in March 1947, and was purchased second hand in 1954 and registered in Canada as CF-HPK.

Bright yellow “bee” CF-HPK at Lac Schryer

Gaetan put the SeaBee to good use by all accounts, and in November 1957 he was on a hunting expedition in the parc national du Mont Tremblant with six colleagues, all of whom traveled up from Lac Schryer in the Outaouais region on the SeaBee to their hunting site on Lac du Diable (Devil’s Lake), a journey of roughly 110 kilometers. On November 21, 1957, Gaetan piloted three trips from the hunting site back to Lac Schryer, the first of which carried only cargo and meat from their hunt. The second trip carried three of Gaetan’s hunting companions, and despite heavy winds and snowfall that reduced visibility to nil at times and required a precautionary landing along the way, the SeaBee managed to land safely back at Lac Schryer. The final trip included Gaetan and the final members of the hunting party: Tony Chiavazza, Philippe Ouimet, Louis-Philippe Hamel, and a dog. The SeaBee left Lac du Diable during the late afternoon hours and vanished forever.

There was anecdotal evidence suggesting that the aircraft crashed into Lac Simon. The remains of a dog were found on the shoreline of the lake along with some articles of clothing, and witnesses saw an aircraft flying over the lake at low altitude. Local residents also reported hearing the sounds of a muffled impact in the area, but as weather and visibility in the area were poor on the day of the crash no irrefutable evidence could be presented. Despite an extensive search along the flight path and in the waters of Lac Simon, the wreckage was never found and the SeaBee and its occupants simply disappeared into local lore over the course of five decades.

Flight track of CF-HPK on November 21, 1957

Rather than being scared away from aviation after his uncle’s disappearance, my father became consumed with it, and when he was old enough to fly he enrolled in flight school and got his private and commercial licenses. After a short stint on location in the Gaspésie with Air Gaspé where he met my mom, he was hired by Air Canada in 1967 and remained there until 2004 when he retired as a captain on the Boeing 767. I followed my father into aviation and got my pilot’s license in 1996 and then started working in the aviation industry the same year. I have two aviation businesses today.

In 2007, three years after my dad retired from Air Canada and nearly 50 years to the day that CF-HPK vanished, the aircraft was found on the bottom of Lac Simon by a local diver, Guy Morin, and two dive colleagues Chris Koberstein and Dan Scoville. Morin had grown up on Lac Simon and heard the stories of the SeaBee over the years and had spent more than a decade searching for the aircraft. The team conducted physical dives and used camera-equipped robots and sonar to scan the lake in search of the aircraft, and in October 2007 they came across the wreckage in about 60 meters of water (as per this absolutely incredible sonar image of the yellow bee on the bottom of Lac Simon from Dan Scoville).

On May 14, 2008, after the lake waters had fully thawed, divers from the Sûreté du Québec successfully retrieved the aircraft and human remains from the floor of the lake, and three weeks later DNA tests confirmed a match for three of the suspected occupants of the aircraft, Gaetan Deshaies, Louis-Philippe Hamel and Philippe Ouimet, providing closure for those families. Only the remains of Tony Chiavazza could not be identified, and it is believed that his remains are still located somewhere on lake floor.

Wreckage of CF-HPK being pulled to the surface (from Guy Morin)

In the weeks subsequent to the announcement of the discovery of CF-HPK, I had numerous discussions with Guy Morin and we met a few times and shared photos and stories. Guy was exceptionally gracious and kind and took hours of his time to answer questions and provide intricate details of their search, and even provided me with incredible video footage from the lake floor showing the undisturbed wreckage as they found it initially. And once CF-HPK was back on terra firma, I organized a meeting with Guy and my dad and one of my sons to see the aircraft and pay homage to Gaetan one last time.

Gaetan Deshaies died tragically 11 years before my birth, yet his light guided my family’s path into aviation and I am exceptionally thankful for this man I never met. I, quite frankly, would not be here without him. I am also eternally grateful to Guy, Chris, and Dan for helping to solve this mystery and for providing the families with a happy bookend to an otherwise tragic story.

Gaetan Deshaies

Original Certificate of Registration for CF-HPK

Original Owner’s Manual for Gaetan’s Republic SeaBee

Vertical stabilizer of CF-HPK after extraction from Lac Simon