A ground worker employed by Samsic has died following an accident involving a French bee Airbus A350 during pushback at Montreal-Trudeau (YUL).
The accident occurred on Monday, August 24, as ground crews prepared flight BF5761 for departure to Paris-Orly (ORY). In an August 25 statement, French bee confirmed the death and identified the worker’s employer as airport-services provider Samsic.
The airline did not describe the sequence of events beyond saying that the accident happened during pushback. It said the precise circumstances remained under investigation and that it was cooperating with the Canadian authorities.
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Reports that the worker fell before coming into contact with the moving aircraft have not been confirmed in the official material released by French bee, the airport operator or Canadian investigators.
Canadian Investigators Deployed to YUL
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada deployed investigators to YUL on August 25. The agency described the occurrence as an accident involving a French bee Airbus A350 on Monday evening and said its team would gather information and assess the event.
The TSB’s work is separate from questions of criminal, civil or workplace liability. Its mandate is to establish what happened, identify safety deficiencies and advance transportation safety rather than assign blame.
A pushback investigation of this kind will require investigators to reconstruct the movement of the aircraft and ground equipment, the positions and responsibilities of the personnel involved, and the communications among the flight deck, headset operator, tug crew and other ramp workers. Procedures, training records and available video or recorded data may also help establish the sequence.
Pushback is a compact operation involving an aircraft that cannot provide its pilots with a direct view of much of the area beneath and immediately around the fuselage. Safe movement therefore depends on a clearly controlled work area and coordinated communication between the cockpit and personnel outside.
French bee said it would not comment further on the circumstances while the authorities carried out their work.
Airport Community Mourns Samsic Employee
ADM Aéroports de Montréal said in an official statement that the employee died while performing his duties. The airport operator offered condolences to the worker’s family, relatives and colleagues and said the YUL airport community was mourning the loss.
The worker was not employed by French bee or ADM. Samsic provides contracted airport services, placing the accident at the intersection of several organizations involved in a single aircraft turnaround. That structure is common at major airports but makes the investigation’s reconstruction of responsibilities and communications especially important.
French bee expressed its condolences to the worker’s family and support for his colleagues and the other teams affected by the accident. The airline also said it was assisting the people involved.
Flight Canceled and Passengers Rebooked
BF5761 did not operate as planned on August 24. French bee arranged another Montreal departure for the affected passengers at 11 p.m. local time on August 25 and opened a dedicated call center to assist them.
The carrier’s Montreal route material identifies the service as an Airbus A350-900 operation. French bee configures the type with 411 seats: 376 in Eco Blue and 35 in a seven-abreast Premium Blue cabin.
That layout is considerably denser than the 300-to-350-seat, three-class configuration that Airbus describes as typical for the A350-900. It reflects French bee’s low-cost, long-haul model and gives the airline substantial capacity between Quebec and the French capital.
French bee launched nonstop Paris-Orly-Montreal flights on April 30, 2025, initially scheduling up to five weekly frequencies. The carrier later increased the route to daily service during the peak summer season, making Montreal one of its core North American markets.
The airline operates an all-A350 fleet comprising the A350-900 and larger A350-1000. Airbus lists the baseline A350-900 at 66.8 meters long with a wingspan of 64.75 meters, dimensions that illustrate the scale of the controlled area required around the aircraft during ground movement.
The TSB has not released findings or a probable cause. Until investigators establish the sequence, no conclusion can be drawn about the actions of the worker, the pushback crew or the aircraft’s flight crew.
Bottom Line
The accident puts the focus on a part of airline operations that passengers rarely see but that depends on several teams acting as one. French bee operated the flight, Samsic supplied ground personnel and ADM managed the airfield environment. Investigators will need to examine how procedures and communications crossed those organizational boundaries, not simply the actions of any one person.
The findings will matter beyond French bee and Montreal. Outsourced ramp operations are embedded throughout the industry, particularly at outstations where an airline relies on local contractors. Any lessons involving personnel positioning, communication, supervision or the management of the pushback area could therefore be relevant to handlers and carriers across multiple airports.
The immediate development to watch is whether the TSB advances the occurrence into a formal investigation and publishes additional factual information. A fuller account should establish the aircraft and tug movements, the worker’s assigned position and the communication sequence before the accident—details necessary for the industry to turn a fatal event into specific preventive action.
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