Ontario man, 50, identified as victim of Mont Tremblant gondola crash

The Quebec Coroner's office has identified the man who was killed after he was ejected from a gondola at Mont Tremblant on Sunday as Sheldon Johnson, 50, from Kingston, Ontario. And earlier on Monday, Quebec provincial police confirmed the type of construction equipment involved in the crash that killed Johnson and seriously injured a woman, also in her 50s, was a drilling machine belonging to a third party.

The Quebec Coroner's office has identified the man who was killed after he was ejected from a gondola at Mont Tremblant on Sunday morning as Sheldon Johnson, 50, from Kingston, Ontario.

And earlier on Monday, Quebec provincial police confirmed that the type of construction equipment involved in the crash that killed Johnson and seriously injured a woman, also in her 50s, was a drilling machine belonging to a third party.

"The woman, she's still in critical condition this morning in a Montreal area hospital," (SQ) spokesperson Audrey-Anne Bilodeau said, and she was expected to have surgery.

Police say the woman is also from Ontario but they do not know yet how the two gondola passengers are related to one another, if at all.

The two were in the gondola mid-way up the mountain when the impact of the machine ejected them from the cabin. They fell many metres to the ground, police said, unable to confirm the exact distance.

The gondola struck the machinery about halfway up the mountain at the popular ski resort about 105 kilometres northwest of Montreal, police later adding that two gondolas were hit –one was unoccupied.

Bilodeau said it's still unclear why a drilling machine was operating near a moving gondola.