#Plane towing ‘Will you Marry Me?’ banner crashes in Montreal, killing one

A small plane carrying a “Will you Marry Me?” banner crashed in Montreal on Sunday, killing a passenger and hospitalizing the pilot.

The nearly 50-year-old plane — a 1974 Cessna 172 — crashed in Montreal’s Parc Dieppe, near Île Saint-Hélène around 6 p.m. Saturday, where a music festival was taking place, according to reports.

The pilot has been identified as Gian Piero Ciambella, owner of Aerogram, an aerial advertising agency, according to police. 

It is unclear whether the deceased passenger, who has not yet been identified, was the man who’d intended to propose, authorities said.

Video shows the plane engulfed in a great ball of fire moments after crashing while first responders scramble to the scene, quickly dousing the flames and getting victims in ambulances.

Police can be seen taping off nearby streets and patrolling the St. Lawrence River nearby where the marriage proposal sign had fallen.

The cause of the crash has not been determined, but authorities had received reports of engine trouble, according to the Canadian Press. The engine was sent to Ottawa for further investigation.

Ciambella is an award-winning pilot, according to CTV, and made an emergency landing on busy Parc Avenue in Montreal after an engine failure using the same plane that crashed on Saturday.

“Mr. Ciambella is a very experienced pilot,” Paul Fréchette, a pilot and former investigator with the Transportation Safety Board, told CTV.

Police said they hope to speak with Ciambella when his condition improves.

“We haven’t ruled out anything,” Chris Krepski, a spokesperson for the TSB, told the Canadian Press.