QUEBEC — Michel Laplante, his face bloody and scarred, spoke to the media on Thursday about what it was like to survive the recent helicopter crash that killed Quebec singer Roberto Bissonnette and the chopper's pilot, Frederick Decoste.
"It's hard to rejoice in being alive when you've lost two friends, to find that balance between being happy to be alive and the disappointment of losing people like that," he told a news conference in Quebec City.
The three men were travelling over New Brunswick last Sunday when the helicopter got tangled in power lines in the community of Flatlands, west of Campbellton along the Restigouche River, according to the RCMP.
After hitting an embankment the chopper ended up in the water.
"I would like to tell people what happened but the truth is that it was pretty short, he said. "Three people were as happy as it's humanly possible to be. Then we were flying ... I fell asleep and it was the sharpest shock I've ever experienced. Then there was 20 seconds of total blackout, maybe 30 or 40 seconds."
"During those 30 seconds, I don't know what happened. I found myself on top of a piece of helicopter and having someone ask me my name and me asking them where I was."
Laplante is president of the Capitales de Quebec baseball team and Bissonnette, 35, was a co-owner.
Bissonnette was also a major junior league hockey player who turned to music after ending his hockey career. He was well-known in Quebec and about to go on tour.
"Obviously, I'm like everyone here in that I'm sad about the loss of two people. In the case of Bob, he was a friend who was very close to me. I have seen how people have described him and 'merchant of happiness' is very appropriate. It was a privilege to spend the last few moments with him," Laplante said.
Despite the obvious stitches and scarring on Laplante's forehead and face, he is surprisingly in good condition.
"I don't know if I'm in perfect shape," he said. "The look obviously doesn't reflect that but nothing is broken. I don't even have any broken teeth, I don't even have any broken fingernails. But my heart has been ripped in two."
