It was 40 years ago today that one of the deadliest plane crashes of all time happened – and in Newfoundland.
The flight carrying American soldiers was on its last stop – Gander – before departing for home in in the United States two weeks before Christmas.
The 6,000-mile journey from Egypt was uneventful until Arrow Air Flight 1285 lifted off from Gander about 645 that Wednesday morning. Unable to gain enough altitude, it began clipping trees a half-mile from the runway and crashed near Gander Lake.
The plane carried the famed 101st Airborne, a troupe which fought on the beaches of Normandy.
It remains the deadliest plane crash on Canadian soil to this day.
The Arrow Air crash site just a short distance away from Gander International Airport (Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Achieves)
Tom Badcock of St. John’s, who was with the Canadian Air Force and stationed in Gander, was one of the first to arrive at the scene.
The soldiers had gone into the airport terminal and bought Christmas presents such as teddy bears. Some bought T-shirts emblazoned with passages such as “I Survived Gander, Newfoundland.”
There will be a service at Evangel Pentecostal Community Church in Gander to mark the occasion, starting at 1:00.
An RCMP on the scene of the crash (Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Achieves)
