Aviation — Members Only Blog — British Columbia Chronicles

A month short of 20 years before Air India Flight 182 was blown out of the sky by British Columbia-based terrorists, B.C had its own aerial mass murder.

Late in the afternoon of July 8, 1965, CPA Flight 21, bound for Whitehorse, Y.T. via Prince George, Fort St. John, Fort Nelson and Watson Lake from Vancouver, exploded in the sky near 100 Mile House, 170 miles northeast of Vancouver, crashing and killing all 52 persons aboard.

It’s B.C.’s worst mass murder and—unlike Air India—has been all but forgotten.

Featured MembersPatricia MacGregor Graphic DesignerJuly 10, 2025Aviation, Disasters

10,000 Watched Canada’s First Fatal Air-Crash

Victoria entered the air age with a crash, 111 years ago.

During Carnival Week, August 1913, performing American aviator Johnny Milton Bryant plummeted to his death in downtown Victoria.

Featured MembersPatricia MacGregor Graphic DesignerJuly 11, 2024Disasters, Aviation

William Wallace Gibson: ‘Birdman’ of Victoria

As did Alcatraz so too did Victoria have its “birdman.” Whereas Robert Stroud, a twice convicted murderer, made himself famous through his studies of birds, William W. Gibson achieved immortality by being Victoria’s—Canada’s—Wright Brothers in one.

Disaster on Mount Benson Now All But Forgotten

At the time—Oct. 1, 1951—the crash of a Queen Charlotte Airlines Canso on Nanaimo’s Mount Benson was the worst aviation accident in British Columbia history. It’s now the 18th which shows you how far we’ve come in 70 years.
Although I’ve always been fascinated by old aircraft and plane wrecks are a natural extension of that interest, I’ve only managed to get to a few over the years. The one on Mount Benson, six miles west of Nanaimo, is the one that has intrigued me most of all. I first heard of it as a kid and was reminded of it in the mid-1970s as I came out of a north Nanaimo department store and saw the sun glinting on something on the southeast face of Mount Benson.

Featured MembersPatricia MacGregor Graphic DesignerDecember 10, 2020Aviation

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