On July 8, 1965, CP Flight 21 issued three mayday calls while on its way to Whitehorse, BC.
That was the last time it was ever heard from. An explosion had rocked the DC6 aircraft and blew its tail section off. All 52 passengers and crew perished. It was later determined that someone had deliberately set off a bomb in the lavatory - and RCMP subsequently identified 4 suspects on the plane - but who actually did the deed has not been solved to this day. The crash site is located in rough country about 35 miles west of 100 Mile House in British Columbia’s Cariboo Region.
54 years later I visited the site, which still has many pieces of the wreckage scattered about. It has become a memorial to the lost souls, although not many people go there anymore, much less remember the event.
I wanted to photograph what still remains, and try to present a little different perspective from previous images I have seen. I tried to prepare ahead of time by listening the the excellent (and award-winning) CBC podcast “Bomb on Board”, and also read many articles about the incident, hoping to gain a greater understanding of what happened and to increase my sensitivity to what I might find. Even so, I was hard struck by such an overwhelming sense of loneliness as I walked the area with my camera.
These are some of my images from the site. (The images may take a minute to load.)
A walk in the woods: visiting the crash site of CP 21.
Click on the thumbnails for a larger view.
“Bomb On Board” podcast and links
https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/bomb-on-board-canadian-airlines-flight-21