Disasters — 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

For Princess Victoria Haste Meant Disaster

Throughout the Pacific Northwest at the turn of the last century there was no argument as to the Speed Queen of the Seas: the CPR flagship Princess Victoria. With three funnels belching black smoke, the sleek liner raced between Victoria, Vancouver and Puget Sound ports, showing her stern to all challengers.

Featured MembersPatricia MacGregor Graphic DesignerOctober 17, 2024Marine, 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

Second Narrows’ ‘Bridge of Sighs’

We’ve just passed the 66th anniversary of that tragic day in June 1958 when two spans of Vancouver’s new Second Narrows Bridge, then under construction, collapsed.

Two weeks ago, the Langley Advance marked that momentous event with an interview with Lou Lessard. Now 91, the former ironworker is the last survivor of that horrendous event of June 7, 1958.

Featured MembersPatricia MacGregor Graphic DesignerJuly 4, 2024Disasters

Day of Disaster on Point Ellice Bridge

Last Sunday marked the 128th anniversary of the worst streetcar accident in North American history—the collapse of Victoria’s Point Ellice bridge from the weight of a trolley carrying more than twice its legal limit of holidayers. Within minutes, 55 people were dead, 27 injured.

Pacific Coast Colliery - Doomed Miners' Day in Court (Conclusion)

Human error. It has always been with us, always will be. For the 19 miners of the Pacific Coast Coal Mine on the morning of Feb. 9, 1915, someone’s carelessness cost them their lives.

Featured MembersPatricia MacGregor Graphic DesignerNovember 3, 2022Mining, Disasters

Pacific Coast Colliery - Doomed Miners' Day in Court (Part 3)

Of all the coal mining disasters in Vancouver Island’s history that of the Pacific Coast Coal Mine in South Wellington stands out on two counts.

Featured MembersPatricia MacGregor Graphic DesignerOctober 27, 2022Mining, Disasters

Pacific Coast Colliery - Doomed Miners' Day in Court (Part 2)

Of all the coal mining disasters in Vancouver Island’s history that of the PCCM in South Wellington stands out on two counts.

Featured MembersPatricia MacGregor Graphic DesignerOctober 20, 2022Mining, Disasters

Pacific Coast Colliery - Doomed Miners' Day in Court (Part 1)

This year’s Extension Miners Memorial service, Ladysmith’s annual tribute to the 32 miners who lost their lives in a tragic explosion on Oct. 5, 1909, was held last week in front of the Metal Collage on the corner of First Avenue and Gatacre Street.

Featured MembersPatricia MacGregor Graphic DesignerOctober 13, 2022Mining, Disasters

Terror On the Tracks - Head-On Collision North of Ladysmith

You won’t find this in Bob Dougan’s book, A Story To Be Told. It’s something he told me personally; of growing up on the family farm on Telegraph Road, Cobble Hill, and of knowing ever so vaguely, even as a child, that there was a skeleton in the family closet.

Terror On the Tracks - Head-On Collision at Ladysmith

“I’ve written a book.” This statement, from almost anyone else, would have been no outrageous thing in itself. I heard if often when wearing my publisher-printer hat.

Nanaimo’s Explosives Industry Was One BIG BANG After Another

Dramatic headlines for Jan. 15, 1903 proving that it was a great news story is the fact that these headlines are from the Winnipeg Free Press which had picked up the story by wire.

Featured MembersPatricia MacGregor Graphic DesignerJuly 22, 2021Disasters

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