Status Destroyed Completed 1972 Height 371 m Province Québec | Type TV Mast Destroyed 2001 Opened 1972 | |
Location Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel, Quebec, Canada | ||
The CBC Tower, also known as the WesTower Transmission Tower, was a 371 metre high guyed mast for FM- and TV-transmission located atop Mont-Carmel near Shawinigan, Quebec, Canada. The tower was built in 1972 and it served for several decades as Quebec's primary CBC transmission point and also served several radio and television stations for the Trois-Rivières market.
Map of CBC Tower, Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel, QC, Canada
On April 22, 2001 a lone pilot, Gilbert Paquette, flew his Cessna 150 into the tower and was killed. The fuselage of the plane remained wedged in the upper part of the tower, with the pilot's body inside. The crash also knocked the tower several metres off balance. It was decided that due to the structural damage and the need to recover the pilot's body the mast would have to be demolished. Several days later a controlled implosion brought the tower down, not damaging the several buildings nearby. It was the tallest structure ever implosively demolished.
The mast was later replaced by a new mast near the same site.