Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 21 was a scheduled domestic flight from

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, British Columbia, Canada, to

Whitehorse Whitehorse () is the capital of Yukon, and the largest city in Northern Canada. It was incorporated in 1950 and is located at kilometre 1426 (Historic Mile 918) on the Alaska Highway in southern Yukon. Whitehorse's downtown and Riverdale areas ...

, Yukon, Canada, via Prince George, Fort St. John,

Fort Nelson Fort Nelson may refer to: Canada *Fort Nelson, British Columbia, a town *Fort Nelson River, British Columbia * Fort Nelson (Manitoba) (1670–1713), an early fur trading post at the mouth of the Nelson River and the first headquarters of the Hudson ...

and Watson Lake on July 8, 1965. The

Douglas DC-6B The Douglas DC-6 is a piston-powered airliner and cargo aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1946 to 1958. Originally intended as a military transport near the end of World War II, it was reworked after the war to compete with ...

plane crashed near

100 Mile House, British Columbia 100 Mile House is a district municipality located in the South Cariboo region of central British Columbia, Canada. History 100 Mile House was originally known as Bridge Creek House, named after the creek running through the area. Its origins ...

, taking the lives of all 52 aboard.. Retrieved on July 25, 2008. An inquest determined that the explosion was the result of a bomb, but the crime remains unsolved.

Incident

While en route from Vancouver to Prince George the DC-6 ''Empress of City of Buenos Aires'', piloted by

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

veteran John 'Jack' Steele, crashed after passing

Ashcroft, British Columbia Ashcroft ( 2016 population: 1,558) is a village in the Thompson Country of the Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It is downstream from the west end of Kamloops Lake, at the confluence of the Bonaparte and Thompson Rivers, and is in the Tho ...

. About 15:40, three

mayday Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications. It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by aviators and mariners, but in some countries local organiza ...

calls were heard by

air traffic control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airs ...

in Vancouver. An explosion had occurred in the left aft lavatory. The tail separated from the fuselage. The aircraft spiralled and crashed into a wooded area. All 46 passengers and 6 crew perished. The crash site is west of 100 Mile House. Remnants of the DC-6 remain at the crash site near Dog Creek.

Aftermath

A coroner's

inquest An inquest is a judicial inquiry in common law jurisdictions, particularly one held to determine the cause of a person's death. Conducted by a judge, jury, or government official, an inquest may or may not require an autopsy carried out by a coro ...

concluded "an explosive substance foreign to the normal contents of the aircraft" caused the crash. A witness on the ground saw the tail of the aircraft separate from the fuselage and debris trail out behind the aircraft. The debris turned out to be the bodies of passengers forced out by the depressurization of the aircraft. The fuselage was consumed by fire where it fell, but the tail, found 500 metres away, was not. Rescue crews reached the crash site while the fire continued to burn but no survivors were found. Crash investigators found traces of acid that led them to believe a bomb in the lavatory was involved. Traces of

potassium nitrate Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . This alkali metal nitrate salt is also known as Indian saltpetre (large deposits of which were historically mined in India). It is an ionic salt of potassium ions K+ and nitrat ...

and carbon, consistent with a "low-velocity explosion" were found.

Gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). ...

stumping powder After a tree has been cut and felled, the stump or tree stump is usually a small remaining portion of the trunk with the roots still in the ground. Stumps may show the age-defining rings of a tree. The study of these rings is known as dendrochrono ...

causes a low-velocity explosion. The explosion damaged bulkheads in the lavatory, severed pipes in the tail and tore a metre-wide hole in the side of the fuselage. The

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...

investigation focused on four passengers although none was a suspect. No one claimed responsibility and no charges were ever laid. The source of the explosion remains unknown.

2018 investigation

The crash was re-examined by experts during six episodes of the second season of the CBC true crime podcast ''Uncover''.

References

External links

Photo of CF-CUQ

CBC The National-Bomb on Board: uncovering the largest unsolved murder on Canadian soil
{{Aviation accidents and incidents in 1965 1965 in British Columbia 1965 murders in Canada Accidents and incidents involving the Douglas DC-6 Airliner accidents and incidents in Canada Aviation accidents and incidents in 1965 21 Disasters in British Columbia July 1965 events in Canada Mass murder in Canada Mass murder in 1965 Unsolved airliner bombings Unsolved murders in Canada

Incident

Aftermath

2018 investigation

See also

References

External links