Disaster on Mount Slesse The Story of Western Canada's Worst Air Crash

by O'Keefe, Betty; MacDonald, Ian

• ISBN13: 9781894759212
• ISBN10: 1894759214
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-10-31
• Publisher: Caitlin Press Inc.

Summary

Mount Slesse, a jagged 2,500-metre peak near Chilliwack BC known locally as "The Fang," lived up to its evil reputation on December 9, 1956, when Trans Canada Airlines Flight 810 slammed into it, killing all 62 aboard. For five months nobody knew what happened. Flight 810 had just disappeared into the night. Adding to the sensation was the fact that the flight carried five professional football players fresh from the CFL All Star game in Vancouver and a mystery man by the name of Kwan Song who was rumoured to be carrying a sizeable fortune in cash. Finally on May 10, 1957, a diminutive female mountaineer named Elfrida Pigou discovered the gruesome crash site, setting off a stampede of macabre treasure hunters. It wasn't until May 25, 1995, that the BC government placed a protective zone around the debris field, declaring it a Heritage Wreck Site. To mark the fiftieth anniversary of this historic tragedy, Betty O'Keefe and Ian Macdonald have written a gripping, blow-by-blow account of western Canada's worst aviation disaster, carefully examining its context, causes and aftermath.

Author Biography

Betty 0'Keefe and Ian Macdonald are journalists based in Vancouver

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. 9
Introduction	p. 13
A Spectacular-and Deadly-Landscape	p. 17
The Storm of '56	p. 20
An Ugly Football Game	p. 23
The Flight 810 Crew	p. 26
The North Star	p. 34
Anxious from the Outset	p. 38
The Flight	p. 48
The Search Begins	p. 55
Sixty Planes on the Search	p. 68
Hope Dwindles	p. 73
Ground Search	p. 77
Snow Obliterates Everything	p. 79
Crash Site Discovered	p. 88
Paddy Sherman's Scoop	p. 99
The Stark Impact Scene	p. 105
McDonald's Inquest	p. 116
A Hair-Raising Climb	p. 120
"We Commit Their Bodies"	p. 124
The Inquiry Board Report	p. 129
What If?	p. 143
TCA Builds a Monument	p. 147
A Living Memorial	p. 151
Preserving the Site	p. 153
Major Philip Edwin Gower, MC	p. 156
Archeological Study	p. 161
Vivian Clarke's Resting Place	p. 166
Epilogue: Another Mountain Claims Elfrida Pigou	p. 169
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