''Ordeal in the Arctic'' is a

television film A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

written by Paul F. Edwards and directed by Mark Sobel. The film stars

Richard Chamberlain George Richard Chamberlain (born March 31, 1934) is an American actor and singer, who became a teen idol in the title role of the television show ''Dr. Kildare'' (1961–1966). He subsequently appeared in several TV mini-series, such as ''Shōg ...

Catherine Mary Stewart Catherine Mary Stewart (; born 22 April 1959) is a Canadian actress. Her film roles include '' The Apple'', ''The Last Starfighter'' and ''Weekend at Bernie's''. She was also the original Kayla Brady in '' Days of our Lives''. Early life Stewar ...

Melanie Mayron Melanie Joy Mayron is an American actress and director of film and television. Mayron is best known for her role as photographer Melissa Steadman on the ABC drama ''thirtysomething'' for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Sup ...

Scott Hylands Scott Hylands Douglas (born 1943) is a Canadian actor who has appeared in movies, on television, and on the stage. Because of his longevity and versatility, critics have called him "one of Canada's greatest actors." Early years Hylands was born ...

and

Page Fletcher Charles Page Fletcher (born 25 February 1951) is a Canadian actor who has starred in films and on television. He is best known for his role on the 1980s hit HBO TV series '' The Hitchhiker'' as the main title character from 1984–1990 and ...

. The accident that ''Ordeal in the Arctic'' depicted, occurred on October 30, 1991, when

Canadian Forces } The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; french: Forces armées canadiennes, ''FAC'') are the unified military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air elements referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and Royal Canadian Air Force. ...

Lockheed CC-130E Hercules (''130322''), from 435 Transport and Rescue Squadron (a part of Operation Boxtop), was flying from

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

via

Thule Air Base Thule Air Base (pronounced or , kl, Qaanaaq Mitarfik, da, Thule Lufthavn), or Thule Air Base/Pituffik Airport , is the United States Space Force's northernmost base, and the northernmost installation of the U.S. Armed Forces, located north o ...

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

on a bi-annual resupply mission to

Canadian Forces Station Alert ) , image_skyline = CFS Alert May 2016.jpg , image_caption = The station from the south, May 2016 , image_flag = , image_seal = , image_shield = , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Canada Nunavut , pushpin_label_position = bottom , subd ...

. At night, while on final approach to the airstrip, the pilot apparently was flying by

sight Visual perception is the ability to interpret the surrounding Biophysical environment, environment through photopic vision (daytime vision), color vision, scotopic vision (night vision), and mesopic vision (twilight vision), using light in the ...

rather than relying on

instruments Instrument may refer to: Science and technology * Flight instruments, the devices used to measure the speed, altitude, and pertinent flight angles of various kinds of aircraft * Laboratory equipment, the measuring tools used in a scientific lab ...

. The aircraft struck a rocky slope and crashed on

Ellesmere Island Ellesmere Island ( iu, script=Latn, Umingmak Nuna, lit=land of muskoxen; french: île d'Ellesmere) is Canada's northernmost and List of Canadian islands by area, third largest island, and the List of islands by area, tenth largest in the world. ...

, approximately 16 km (9.9 miles) short of the runway, resulting in the death of four of the 18 passengers and crew. Subsequent rescue efforts by personnel from CFS Alert, USAF personnel from Thule AB and CF personnel from 440 Squadron, CFB Edmonton, Alberta, and Trenton, Ontario, were hampered by a blizzard and local terrain. The pilot died of exposure while awaiting rescue.

Plot

While heading to Alert in the far north on October 30, 1991, pilot Captain John Couch misjudges his altitude and crashes 10 miles from the base. Master Corporal Roland Pitre, the loadmaster, is the first to die while three others also do not survive the impact: Warrant Officer, Robert Grimsley, Master Warrant Officer, Tom Jardine, and Captain Judy Trépanier. Of the survivors, Susan Hillier, and Master Corporal, David Meace, because of possible spinal injuries, cannot be moved to the tail end of the aircraft with the others. During the 32-hour ordeal, Couch makes multiple trips to check on Sue and Dave, while Captain Wilma De Groot, keeps the others calm, before succumbing in the cold weather. Although they are able to see the base prior to the crash, blizzard-like conditions prevent anyone from going for help. Once

search and rescue Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...

crews are sent to look for the aircraft, survivors are able to communicate with Boxtop 21, searching by air using a two-way radio. As the weather calms, search and rescue (SAR) technicians are able to parachute down to the site, while those searching by ground arrive soon after.

Cast

as Captain John Couch *

as Captain Wilma De Groot *

as Susan "Sue" Hillier *

as Fred Ritchie *

as Lieutenant Joe Bales * Christopher Bolton as Lieutenant Michael "Mike" Moore * Richard McMillan as Bob Thompson (credited as Richard MacMillan) * Tom Butler as Arnie Macauley * Robert Clinton as Sergeant Paul West * Blair Haynes as Master Corporal Roland "Rollie" Pitre * Stephen Sparks as Master Corporal Tony Cobden * Brian Jensen as Master Corporal David "Dave" Meace * Larry Yachimec as Warrant Officer Robert Grimsley * Cecily A. Adams as Captain Judy Trépanier *

Nathan Fillion Nathan Fillion (; born March 27, 1971) is a Canadian-American actor. He played the leading roles of Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds on '' Firefly'' and its film continuation '' Serenity'', and Richard Castle on '' Castle''. , he was starring as J ...

as Master Warrant Officer Tom Jardine * Stephen Sparks as Tony Cobden *

Mark Gibbon Mark Gibbon is a Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and a ...

as Master Seaman "Monty" Montgomery * David Cameron as Master Corporal Mario Ellefsen * Steve Adams as Private Bill Vance * David McNally as Marc Tremblay * Larry Musser as Rick Dumoulin * Francis Damberger as Jimmy Brown * Fred Keating as Major MacLain *

Wendell Smith Wendell Smith may refer to: * Wendell Smith (sportswriter) (1914–1972), American baseball writer *Wendell Smith (actor) Wendell Smith is a Canadian actor born in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. History Originally based in Nova Scotia, Wendell Smit ...

as Major Blair * Paul Whitney as Marvin Macauley * Dave Nichols as Don Hansen * Aaron Goettel as Tech No. 1 * Karen Gartner as Tech No. 2 * Mike Kobayashi as himself * Dodd Rougeau as Condly * Garry Chalk as Rescue 242 Pilot * Brian Taylor as Boxtop 21 Pilot * Roger Shank as Nodwell Driver * Darryl Shuttleworth as Ground Commander

Production

''Ordeal in the Arctic'' was filmed at

Canadian Forces Base Edmonton CFB Edmonton (also called 3rd Canadian Division Support Base Edmonton) is a Canadian Forces base located in Sturgeon County adjacent to the City of Edmonton in Alberta, Canada. It is also known as Edmonton Garrison or "Steele Barracks". Hist ...

over a four-week period in November and December 1992. Although a northerly location in Canada, the terrain is very different from the tundra of

Alert, Nunavut Alert, in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada, is the northernmost continuously inhabited place in the world, ("Twice a year, the military resupply Alert, the world's northernmost settlement.") on Ellesmere Island (Queen Elizabeth Island ...

. To replicate the sunless conditions near the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distinguish from the Mag ...

, filming was done mainly at night. Master Corporal Mike Kobayashi, an SAR Tech from 440 Squadron, who participated in the actual rescue, portrayed himself in the film. Another SAR Tech involved in the rescue, Master Corporal Tim Eagle from 440 Squadron, acted as the SAR technical advisor. ''Ordeal in the Arctic'' is an adaptation of Robert Mason Lee's non-fiction book ''Death and Deliverance: The Haunting True Story of the Hercules Crash at the North Pole''. His book thoroughly documented the 1991 crash and subsequent rescue.

Reception

''Ordeal in the Arctic'' was considered a typical "made-for-TV" production, although it had the advantage of covering a story that had recently been in the news. Despite the real-life heroics, reviews were mainly tepid. Patricia Brennan from ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' advised: "If you sit down to watch “Ordeal in the Arctic,” bring along a cup of tea. It's a movie that's a little hard to warm up to." Reviewer Chris Willman from the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' wrote, "Considerable heroism is involved in this true-life survival story, to be sure – but, truth be told, it's mostly a bunch of people sitting around in the dark shivering."Willman, Chris
"TV Reviews: 'Ordeal in the Arctic' offers true-life story of survival."
''LA Times'', February 15, 1993. Retrieved: September 26, 2014.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* Lee, Robert Mason. ''Death and Deliverance: The Haunting True Story of the Hercules Crash at the North Pole'' (aka ''Death and Deliverance: The True Story of an Airplane Crash at the North Pole''). Golden, Colorado: Fulcrum Publishing, 1993. .

External links

* * {{tcmdb title, 472264
Richard Chamberlain page about the film
1993 films Accidents and incidents involving the Lockheed C-130 Hercules Canadian aviation films Canadian television films English-language Canadian films Canadian films based on actual events Films about aviation accidents or incidents Films set in the Arctic Films shot in Edmonton ABC Motion Pictures films Canadian Armed Forces in films Films directed by Mark Sobel 1990s Canadian films