Little room for error when towing banners by plane, ex-pilot says after Quebec crash
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MONTREAL — An ex-professional pilot says that while it’s too soon to say what caused a plane pulling a marriage proposal banner to crash near Old Montreal over the weekend, there’s little room for error when towing banners by air.
Julien Plaça, who still flies recreationally, said today in an interview from Montreal most crashes are due to a “combination of factors,” adding that there’s rarely one single reason why a plane goes down.
He says towing banners means engines have to work harder to maintain minimum speeds, putting them at risk of stalling, and he says because they fly low, there is little time to react if things go wrong.
While he believes towing banners is safe under the right conditions, he says factors such as air humidity, the plane’s weight, low cloud cover and human error can all cause a plane to get into trouble.
