Nahanni National Park (Jun 26/06) - A plane carrying Governor General Michaelle Jean and her entourage was asked to help search for the body of a missing canoeist Thursday, and find it they did.

The governor general and her party were returning from a trip to Nahanni National Park, when their chartered Twin Otter crew was alerted that a canoeist paddling on the Nahanni River had fallen out of a boat and had been swept away.

The Governor General Michaelle Jean and husband Jean-Daniel Lafond meet MLA Kevin Menicoche Wednesday at the Fort Simpson airport. The plane pictured was not the one involved in the search for the missing canoeist Thursday. - Roxanna Thompson/NNSL photo

"Our assistance was requested to search for a missing canoeist, which we found," Jean, visibly shaken by the experience, declared during a speech at an exclusive dinner at the Department of National Defense headquarters in Yellowknife, Thursday evening.

"I'm still a little moved by this, but I am also moved by everything we've experienced."

Jean had been out for the day on a picnic at Virginia Falls in the Nahanni National Park reserve before the discovery.

Her group was flying near the so-called Fourth Canyon on the Nahanni River on their way back to Fort Simpson when they received the call.

The RCMP and Parks Canada requested that they have a look, and when they passed over the area they spotted the man's body in the water below.

"I am very impressed with the performance of the RCMP and Parks Canada in the search-and-rescue operations," Jean said.

An RCMP press release issued Friday identified the victim as Michel John Boucher, a 50-year-old resident of Ottawa, Ont.

Boucher was part of six-person group that were travelling on a guided river expedition by Black Feather Wilderness Adventures - a company based out of Parry Sound, Ont. - when the accident occurred, according to RCMP.

A woman was paddling with him, but she was rescued by others in the party after the canoe overturned.

While the governor-general's party circled above the man's body, two park wardens and an RCMP officer made their way over to the area.

Boucher's body was retrieved around 6:30 p.m., Thursday. Attempts were made to revive him but proved unsuccessful.

His body was transported to Fort Simpson where he was pronounced dead at the community's medical centre.

NWT chief coroner Percy Kinney said his death is under investigation.

"The cause of death is presumed drowning," Kinney said.

"But there are other potentially natural causes and his body has been sent to Edmonton for an autopsy."

Kinney said he was wearing a life jacket when the canoe capsized.

He was also wearing a wet suit, according to the RCMP.

"Fatalities are rare in Nahanni National Park Reserve," said Chuck Blythe, superintendent of Nahanni National Park.

"There have only been four fatalities in the park in thirty years and the last one was ten years ago."

The water in the Fourth Canyon is turbulent which Blythe said he assumes has at least some minor rapids.

Black Feather owner Wendy Grater could not be reached for comment at press time.

Katja Mathys, who works for Black Feather, told News/North that Grater was on her way back to Fort Simpson from Ottawa, Friday.

Boucher is the fourth person to have died or have gone missing while boating this year.

Last Tuesday, as the governor general attended an event held on Yellowknife Bay in the territorial capital, RCMP, the Coast Guard and searchers from the communities of Ndilo and Dettah were on the lake only a few hundred meters away searching for 43-year-old Peter Drygeese, who went missing while on his boat the previous Sunday.

His body was still missing at press time.