Editorially speaking…
That old adage, “Better late then never” certainly proved to be the case in Nanaimo, two and a-half weeks ago.
That’s when a special memorial service was held in the Nanaimo Cemetery to honour the victims of a 1951 air crash, at that time the worst in Canadian history. (See “Disaster On Mount Benson All But Forgotten” )
In other words, this memorial was 74 years in the making, occasioned by the sad fact that, in 1951, the City of Nanaimo chose to go the cheapest possible route by marking the collective grave of 12 of the victims with a cheap slab of concrete.
For the life of me, I can’t imagine what motivated City Council oor its works department at that time. No, the victims weren’t taxpaying residents, they were from elsewhere. Did that make a difference?
Whatever. This minor travesty was corrected on Saturday, August 16th, when the Nanaimo Historical Society and the B.C. Building Trades Council, with sponsorship by the Boag Foundation, put up the funding to have a proper headstone placed alongside the ugly duckling original.
It’s also alongside the two markers paid for by victims’ families. As several of the victims were burned beyond recognition, a common grave was the only option, hence this strip of what are now four headstones honours those who died in the wreck of Queen Charlotte Airlines Flight 102, Oct. 17,1951.
The converted wartime Canso bomber was flying at full capacity with three crew members and 20 passengers when it cleared Kitimat for its 400-mile flight to Vancouver. Most of those aboard were working on the aluminum smelter and hydro dam then being built at Kitimat; it’s their connection as tradesmen and labourers that caught the interest of the Nanaimo union in replacing the city’s shabby headstone.
When pilot Doug McQueen made his last radio report he was 38 minutes past his expected arrival in Vancouver. Flying by dead reckoning, the air force veteran reported that he was on course and just 32 kilometres from the airport.
He was, in fact, 60 kilometres off course—the lights that he saw through the early evening darkness and mist were those of Nanaimo, not Vancouver.
Twice, he circled the smaller city then veered to the west, one witness being shocked to see the Canso barely clear hydro power lines before disappearing with a roar in the gloom. At 6:20, 10 minutes since McQueen’s last radio report to the Vancouver tower, Flight 102 struck the side of Mount Sicker.
There was a loud boom and, although not seen from afar, a ball of flame as the plane struck the mountain, bounced down 200 feet and exploded in a fireball that incinerated those aboard who hadn’t been thrown clear by the initial impact.
Before the unveiling, the new headstone was symbolically covered with a safety vest and hard hat.
What followed for 18 search and rescuers led by RCMP officers was a horror of wreckage, burning stumps and bodies, one they’d never erase from their minds. In the various addresses given at the unveiling, Laird Cronk, retired president of the BC Federation of Labour, IBEW 213, dwelt on what first responders have to deal with in their duties. Theirs is a job few of us would want and we are truly blessed that they are there for us when needed.
The unveiling.
