Canada plane crash: Seven dead after private plane crashes off Quebec

Seven people have died after a private plane crashed off a Canadian island while flying in bad weather.

Canada’s Transportation Safety Board said it was investigating the crash which happened in the Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, off eastern Quebec.

Earlier reports said six people have died but it has since been confirmed all seven passengers are dead.

Canadian media reported the small charterted plane crashed it approached a local airport in the Iles de la Madeleine amid heavy winds and snow.

Jean Lapierre, a broadcaster and former Canadian transport minister, was one of the seven passengers on the plane, local media reported.

Quebec police spokesman Daniel Thibodeau said: "The crash took place in a field on approach to the airport."

The plane was a Mitsubishi turboprop and is understood to have belonged to a private company.

It had taken off from the St-Hubert regional airport, south of Montreal.