The CBC Tower, also known as the WesTower Transmission Tower, was a guyed mast (now after its reconstruction) for FM- and TV-transmission located atop
Mont-Carmel near
Shawinigan, Quebec
Shawinigan () is a city located on the Saint-Maurice River in the Mauricie area in Quebec, Canada. It had a population of 49,349 as of the 2016 Canadian census.
Shawinigan is also a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality (TE) and ...
, 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
Trois-Rivières (, – 'Three Rivers') is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice River, Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence River, Saint Lawrence rivers, on the north shore of the Sain ...
market.
2001 Incident
On April 22, 2001 a lone pilot, Gilbert Paquette, flew his
Cessna 150
The Cessna 150 is a two-seat tricycle gear general aviation airplane that was designed for flight training, touring and personal use.Plane and Pilot: ''1978 Aircraft Directory'', pages 22-23. Werner & Werner Corp, Santa Monica CA, 1977. In 19 ...
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. At the time, it was the tallest structure to have ever been demolished with explosives.
In July 2003, a new mast broadcasting with over double the effective radiated power of the original mast (from 4,386 watts to 9,300 watts) was built exactly at the same place, on the same base. Its height is the same, for the tower structure, but the antenna on the top who was is now.
fybush.com Tower Site of the Week: Quebec City and Trois-Rivieres, Quebec
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See also
* List of masts
The tallest structure in the world is the Burj Khalifa skyscraper at . Listed are guyed masts (such as telecommunication masts), self-supporting towers (such as the CN Tower), skyscrapers (such as the Willis Tower), oil platforms, electricity t ...
References
External links
Implosion World: "Freak Accident Leads to Record-Setting Blast"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cbc Tower (Mont-Carmel)
Radio masts and towers
Buildings and structures in Shawinigan
Transmitter sites in Canada
Towers in Quebec
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Buildings and structures demolished by controlled implosion
Buildings and structures demolished in 2001
Towers completed in 1972
1972 establishments in Quebec
2001 disestablishments in Quebec
Demolished buildings and structures in Canada