MY iPhone 4S Captures ANOTHER SUSPICIOUS Brampton Farmhouse Fire…

HERE WE GO…yet another abandoned Brampton farmhouse…already sold to developers…mysteriously catches fire…in the middle of the night! 

For a hundred years the house sits blaze-free and then only a couple of years after it gets snapped up by a home building company…whoop, whoop…"FIRE!!!!!!!"

I saw it in the distance at 1:30 am and called it in.   

When I arrived at 1:37am…the Brampton Fire Department was already there.

I mean this was quite the blaze.  The nearest fire engine pumper (you can see it right beside the house) had been dousing the home with a steady stream of water for what seemed like an eternity…didn't even slow those arson-engineered flames down!

It costs some coin to raze an old farm home property.

It costs $40 of gas to pre-soak a farm-home's interior and 5 cents for the matches.

Basically…free.

Couldn't a land developer get a permit to do a controlled burn of these old properties?

Na.  Too risky in this case.  The city of B-Town would never approve it.  The proximity of other farmhouses and/or other residential, industrial properties poses too great a risk. You might end up with two blazes.

  

For instance, with this particular property located at approximately 10146 the Gore Road, Castlemore, there was a real concern amongst the firefighters about the residential property located just north of the blaze.  The sheer volume of smoke spewing thousands of live embers was certainly a sight to behold by me, AND not taken lightly, or as entertainment, by the Brampton Fire Department.  They stationed ready pumpers at the northern property, and one at the property just south of the 'fire'.  Several pumpers remained on "The Gore" to respond quickly to ANY changing conditions.

And conditions DID change.

I was engulfed in one such change and had to move (…and, I was more than 200 feet away!) as the smoke column flattened out, suddenly swung westward, and lowered so that I could look directly overhead and watch dancing embers sail by.  No wonder these firefighters are so concerned!  I moved moments later when I then felt the wall of intense heat that accompanied the fast-moving, jet-black billowing overhead.

One never has a proper camera…or a bag of marshmallows…at the oppertune moment.

Judging by the FD talkback on the pumper-truck PAs…the thick, black, billowing column of smoke laced with live embers that was over a half mile long…posed more of a concern to the northern property.

'Course, no one ever talks about the cost to scramble half the City of Brampton's Fire Department, the area police units, and the paramedic teams I saw perched, ready to respond further for what will be 10 hour stationing, or more, while the fire plays itself out.

Dire Straits sang a song that included the line, "Money for nothin' and chicks for free…"

What we have here in Brampton is our own lyrics that could be easily interjected into the legendary Dire Straits "Money For Nothing" song.

Here's one line from my adapted version,  "…Razed buildings and emergency support services for free…"

Razing or blazing…probably costs about the same, $20,000 - $30,000.

What's the difference then?

One the developer pays for…and one the City pays for.

And you wonder why your City of Brampton property taxes are double or triple what Torontonians pay for equivalently valued properties!

I can think of at least 10 unsolved Brampton area mystery fires…that…'just happened'. 

I'm not talking about any of the "Laidlaw Lane" fires that took down Laidlaw family farm barns.  We know who did that.  Farm-hand's son gone berserk. Case closed. Rather sadly I might add.

But what of these other fires.

Hey, anyone thought of calling Pam Douglas?

::: AIR CANADA FLIGHT 621: Crash Site Development

WELL, THERE YOU have it. Roads.  Right into the northern perimeter of the accident site.  

However, things are much better this time.  The former crash arena has been culled and the topsoil entombed in the park and memorial area of the development.  The July 5th, 1970 crash that started in Toronto with the very hard landing of an Air Canada DC-8, and the loss of its' Number 4 engine…ended here, in Brampton, only three minutes later.  All 109 passengers and crew lost their lives 42 years ago, today.

Unlike, every other visit to the 621 field in the past…I have not been able to find a single Air Canada Flight 621 crash fragment.  No DC-8 pieces.  No passenger artifacts.

And certainly no bone fragments in situ, praise God!

The profile of the field has changed.  Entirely.  Not just roads but the elevation…all to make way for the eventual Flight 621 Memorial Park and cemetery.  And, the surrounding houses.

I took the old way in.  Everybody had a good laugh about that.

"Paul,  you could have taken the road in", says Diarmuid Horgan, of Candevcon Developments who is overseeing the field's transition process.

Old habits are hard to break.   For the longest time, the way I entered…was the only way into the crash site.

I am quite happy with the outstanding progress that has been made in the field to date. Much thanks to Diarmuid and the existing landowners. The full unveiling of the Flight 621 Memorial Park and Cemetery should be next year, around July 5, 2013 provided the City of Brampton clears all the development permits in a timely manner (hint, hint).

And only two weeks ago I was there for a very special event.  To help out, in a very small way, with the filming of a movie that will involve a segment about Flight 621!

  

I can't say a whole lot about the film to be released in January of 2013, except that it will be a docu-drama involving Lucie Raymond (who tragically lost her father in that horrific Air Canada crash), as well as other people who have to cope with personal loss.  The film is being directed by multiple-award winning French-Canadian director, Carole Laganière, of the National Film Board of Canada.

From the left: Barbara Winckler (crash eyewitness), Lucie Raymond (daughter of Martial Raymond), and director, Carole Laganière (NFB Canada). 

Carole Laganière

Born in Montreal, Carole Laganière studied film in Brussels (INSAS, 1983-87). She stayed on in Belgium to make her first short, Jour de congé, which won a number of prizes on the festival circuit. Back in Quebec, she directed Aline, which won the Bayard d'Or for the best feature film at the 1992 Festival de Namur.

Following several successful forays into docudrama (Histoires de musées, 1996-97, Des mots voyageurs, 1999), Laganière directed La fiancée de la vie (The Fiancée of Life), which won the Gold Award for Best Canadian Documentary at the 2002 Toronto Hot Docs Festival. She returned the next year with Un toit, un violon, la lune (The Moon and the Violin), which won the Gold Award again, this time in the short to mid-length category. She then directed Vues de l'Est (East End Kids), a documentary about children in Montreal's Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough, followed by Country (2005), a documentary about the world of country and western festivals, co-produced at the NFB. May 2011 saw the release of her documentary L'Est pour toujours (East End Forever), a follow-up that examines the lives of the same children, now teenagers. Carole is named cinéaste en résidence at the NFB in Spring 2011.

FLIGHT 621: Brampton's WORST AIR DISASTER marked off

WELL, THERE IS no mistaking it now. Flight 621's crash site and the crash arena are now clearly marked and fenced in.

And the crash site is within the developer's site which is also now surrounded by a developer's site fence.

The bottom end of the field has a very bizarre double fence which I will show you soon enough.

Tomorrow I meet with the Brampton Fire Department Headquarters to discuss my most recent field finds which are related to their firefighting work of 41 years ago.

The bulk of the crash was contained within the fenced off area. I talked to an OPP officer who was given this eastern section to catalogue. He found human remains even this far from the impact point.

There was a torso of a male teenager that was found even farther away however, 1100 feet from the DC-8's ground impact point. The forces of destruction which come into play, in a crash of this magnitude, are just incredible—and merciless.

FLIGHT 621 ::: The Lost Photographs

FOR THE LONGEST TIME, I thought the Terry Waddington photo was the only photo in existence that captured CF–TIW, the Air Canada Stretch DC-8 that crashed in a Castlemore farmer's field on July 5, 1970.

But…I was wrong.

There were two other photographs taken of the ill-fated aircraft. On the very day of the accident!

The Terry Waddington photo was taken just a month or two before the aircraft was delivered to Air Canada. That photo, which is the top photo depicted here, shows us the brand-new Air Canada DC-8 (tail fin number 878) Canadian registration CF-TIW doing engine run ups amongst a host of other pre-delivery DC-8s at the old Long Beach, California McDonnell Douglas aircraft plant.

But, back to the other photographs…

Apparently, a travellor racing along in a cab on his way to the airport (somewhere in the northeast corner of Mississauga) snapped two photographs of the disintegrating Air Canada DC-8—just as it was beset with three explosions, and just as it really started to break apart. Timeline about 25 seconds before it actually crashed.

After these photographs were taken of the fatal flight, the photographer knowing he had captured something significant…turned them over to the proper authorities, likely the RCMP, when he arrived at Toronto International Airport in Malton.

One problem though—nobody knew where the hell he had taken them from! And no one thought to ask the photographer before he departed on his flight!

I mean…where was the racing cab barrelling along, where was it actually located, when the telltale photos were snapped? Back in the 70s, it was rare for folk to be walking around with a camera! Not like today! On top of that, it was even rarer for photos to be taken of an airliner moments before it crashed. It takes a certain presence of mind, and a steady hand to capture such a horrific and fast-moving event. It's there…and seconds later it's gone. And camera settings were not automatic, back then! Let's remember the skill level involved, shall we?

Of course, everyone remembers the ominous grainy photo of a 180 degree banked, sideways flying American Airlines DC-10 ( Flight 191) as it passed over the terminal at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, only seconds before it crashed. I mean that photo was famous! And here, we have not one, but two(!) photos of an airliner in crash sequence and these never make it to the Toronto papers, were kept secret at the time, now can't be found, and no one even knows where to look!

Oh, the secrecy! In Canada with our multiple layers of worthless bureaucracy, it isn't enough to say the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing…it's more serious than that! It is more accurate to say the right-handed thumb, doesn't know what the right-handed index finger is doing!!

Anyway, before I lose my marbles at the sheer stupidity of that fact which is resettling in on me, and before my BP reading goes right off the dial…lets return to the subject of the missing Flight 621 photos.

Mississauga Roads and Construction with copies of the photos in hand, were sent out to determine the exact spot the photographs were taken from. The photographs were incredibly important to the crash investigators, because miraculously, these photographs were able to certify, beyond any doubt, investigators assumptions that three explosions had indeed taken place aboard the struggling airplane moments before it crashed in Castlemore, Ontario.

The diagram in the lower right-hand part of the book page was created from the two, now missing photos. Investigators noted that the three explosions were visible within the photos as "puffs of smoke".

Engine #3 is seen separating and falling to the ground, followed thereafter by the starboard wingtip, and finally joined by Fuel tank #4's upper plating. Then the still brand-new DC-8 crashed. I've taken the liberty of adding Air Canada DC-8s to the diagram, in the approximate position and angle, the photographer would have captured the crashing airplane in—for the benefit of the reader.

One final mystery remains to this day. No two! Who was THAT photographer? And where the hell are these photographs today?

We have the diagram…but we don't have the photos!

That—could only happen in Canada!

.

ADDITIONAL
How did the stewardesses, look back in 1970? SEE: www.flickr.com/photos/70fashion/3353308678/in/pool-100737...

The FLIGHT 621 stewardesses had these exact uniforms with one noted exception. Some of the stewardesses on board that day, the day of the crash, would have had the Galaxy-themed uniforms which would be the same style, but they would be blue in colour, not Air Canada red! CF-TIW was a Galaxy-themed DC-8.


(As with all my articles…this is a first post that will be revised several times in the weeks and months ahead.)

FLIGHT 621: the LAST WINTER (2011) of the DIASPORA

HOMES SPROUTING UP all 'round the 621 Field…

You knew it had to happen one day. And that day swiftly approaches…and for better, or worse…development will steamroller its way through the hallowed 621 field in only a few months. Yes, in this forgotten field where 109 people, strangers to each other, died, together, in 1970.

But that impending development is for the better, folks.

The skeletal remains of these unfortunate victims can still be found in the field. But by spring…that will…no longer be the case. Thankfully.

The three acres of topsoil containing most of these human remains will be gathered up…and entombed in a FLIGHT 621 Cemetery that will be located right at the crash point.

Right where AIR CANADA'S DC-8's nose entered the ground.

I pause, as I have so often before…and snippets of the victims lives, the part of their lives that I have come to know about, race through my head. And I see the faces. Even in the bitter cold and the silence, there is time for that.

I share some thoughts with the Great God, who is always present. And I release my sadness back to Him.

Otherwise, it would be too much for me, for anybody, to bear.

For many of the Flight 621 families who lost cherished ones, it has been just that. Too much too bear.

So often in death, we get lucky…we have a warning. We have time to spend with an ailing family member, or, friend. Time to mend things, time to say those things that need to be said, we have time to say our good-byes…and to let go.

Gradually.

With so many of the surviving family members of Flight 621…it is a feeling of being cheated.

So, if you go to the Flight 621 Cemetery in Castlemore, when it officially opens in 2012, bear that in mind.

You may run into family members. This is their place.

Most will want privacy. Some may want to talk. There is no roadmap. All you can do is discern in that very moment what is the loving thing to do, or be.

And if you're Catholic, like I am…that's all your religion, and your God is asking you to do. Has been asking you, your whole life—

God, is not as far away, as you think.

And your neighbour is, almost as close…


(The visible post coincidentally is at the most eastern edge of the crash arena. The treeline takes you down to ground zero)

The Crash of AIR CANADA FLIGHT 621 : The First Hour : The Mike Quatrale Collection

HERE IS SAD HISTORY, that you're looking' at. On July 5, 1970 Air Canada FLIGHT 621 crashes in Castlemore. It would become the worst accident in the Toronto region with 109 people killed.

Within the first hour, Mike Quatrale, Emergency Services, was there.

And here is the first roll of pics that he took. This is the contact sheet that was hastily created so that photos could be selected for worldwide publication. Four of Mike's photos were published internationally.

I came across Mike's photos first in the Montreal Gazette. And through further research I was able to find Mike who is now retired and resides with his wife, Audrey, in Brampton. I was welcomed into his home to see the rest of his Flight 621 photos. Mike's photos appear in the Documentary: Disasters of the Century: Out of the Blue episode which covers the story of Flight 621.

Mike's photos have been invaluable to our Flight 621 research, in putting some of the pieces together.

Mike's photos are unique because he was the only media photographer allowed to photograph throughout the entire crash arena. Within the cordoned off crash site, itself. Other local photographers took photos using zoom lenses. Mike was right there amidst the crash, he didn't need to.

::: AIR CANADA’S WORST CRASH: Flight 621, DC-8 Radome Artifact ..::..

IT'S STILL HARD to believe, what one can find…even now.

With Apple iPhone 3GS in hand I find a nosepiece of Air Canada's "Stretch" DC-8, CF-TIW that was lost on July 5, 1970. A part of the radome, specifically. I photo capture the GPS co-ordinates. At almost 9 pm at night. July 2, 2010, almost 40 years after the crash.

FLIGHT 621 has remained AIR CANADA'S WORST aviation accident with 109 lives lost in Castlemore, Ontario. Seven years previous, TCA lost 118 people, in St. Therese du Blainville, Quebec.

But that was Trans-Canada-Air-Lines…not Air Canada.

What's a RADOME??

The RADOME is usually found on the nosecone of any aircraft.

FLIGHT 621's Air Canada DC-8, numbered internally 878, it's radome housed the jet airliner's radar antenna and thus protected the aircraft's sensitive radar from the elements, both at 40 below and at 600 mph. The spherical covering also reduces drag so that DC-8 is more aerodynamically streamlined as she hopscotches across the continent.


By the numbers…

1) GPS co-ordinates of the actual radome find.

2) Thin, crushed, painted black metal of 878's radome. Remember, only a very small section of the Air Canada's DC-8 livery was painted semi-gloss black. The upper nose portion, as pictured. The fuselage aluminum just up from the nosecone, or radome area, is about double the thickness of the radome aluminum and is tempered to a harder standard.

3) ORIGIN AREA of the radome artifact, its actual area of location…as highlighted on an Air Canada DC-8.

FLIGHT 621 : Brampton (Toronto/GTA's) WORST Aviation Disaster - Denise Goulet

MY RESEARCH PARTNER out in Quebec, Pierre Tremblay, who has done extensive research on all Flight 621 victims from the province of Quebec, disclosed to me that he had actually known Denise Goulet (pictured above) back in the summer of 1967!

Pierre had spent a good part of his summer at EXPO 67 which was being held in Montreal. He went several times to the Bell Canada Telephone Pavilion, and there chatted with the ever cheerful hostess Denise, as he was then fascinated by telecommunication.

And maybe a little by her, as well.

The crash of Flight 621, of course, was front page news in the Montréal-Matin on July 6th, 1970, the day after the crash.

Pierre saw the Montréal-Matin crash headline, and was immediately riveted by the coverage of this unexpected Air Canada crash that had occurred the previous morning, on the clearest of days, somewhere in the Toronto region. Still in a state of shock and wonder about the horrific DC-8 crash that had claimed all 109 lives, he quickly read through the front page coverage and followed up on page three. There, his eyes fell on those ominous row pictures of the now deceased Air Canada flight crew, and its stewardesses.

One picture stood out.

Pierre was floored!

There was Denise!!

Oh, poor Denise—

While Pierre had met the exotically attractive Denise when she was then working at the EXPO 67 Bell Canada pavilion, she had already applied to, and been accepted to take the stewardess course. Immediate employment for Denise in the fall, at Air Canada, once EXPO 67 had wrapped up in October.

Aviation, not tele-communications, was Denise's first love.

At 17, Denise already had her first parachute jump under her belt.

And while Miss Denise Goulet had been working as a stewardess for Air Canada for almost three years, she had set her sights on being a pilot!

And guess what? Her father, Henri-Paul, was a pilot!

I guess the apple didn't fall too far from the tree, as they say…

When her father was reached for comment on his daughter's premature death, he told the media,

“Denise always dreamt of aviation. Aviation was in her blood.”

Mr. Goulet, himself a pilot for 25 years, was on duty the morning of the crash when he learned about the terrible tragedy. Henri-Paul was a pilot for the Yvon Fournier company from Trois-Rivières, and had to sprinkle insecticide on the transmission lines of Alcan in Lac St. Jean.

Denise, who was to be 23 on July 12, died seven days short of her birthday.

She had made special arrangements to be aboard the Air Canada "California Galaxy" (Montreal-Toronto-Los Angeles) flight, one of the airlines' new connoisseur flights, in order to meet with her brother, Andre. She was looking forward to journeying to Los Angeles to see her brother, who now resided there. She was going to take a few days off.

In August, Denise was quite excited to be travelling to Paris, with her mother, on an already arranged vacation for the pair.

It was not to be.

On July 10th, sadly just two days before she was to have turned 23, a funeral mass was held for Denise at 10.00 A.M. at St. Odilon Catholic Church, in Cap-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec. There was a large turn out of family and friends to pay their final respects.

Had Denise not died that day, today she would be 62 years old.

And now she looks back at us from eternity, forever only twenty-two…

FLIGHT 621 | Brampton's LARGEST Air Disaster

FLIGHT 621 | Toronto's Largest Air Disaster *** REVISED ***


ONE OF A FEW book cover mock-ups I'm considering for my book about Flight 621.

This is the only one I'll be showing. For now. I like another mock-up I did… that I feel is much better, more sombre, reflective… but I'm always curious about feedback.

So have your say, below, if you wish.

I was reviewing an OPP police photographer's 40 year old Flight 621 crash photos recently, when I saw something in one of the photos.

So I called Mike and said, "Mike, tell me, tell me, THAT ISN'T what I think it is."

After, both his wife, Audrey and he looked over the photo in question, the sad response came back.

"I think you're right, Paul."

I thought to myself, God… always prepares the way. And you won't see that until you're right in the middle of it. If you see it at all. Whatever He has, later for you… to be right in the middle of.

Only six months ago I was watching the excellent series about World War II, entitled, "The World at War" which, of course, is the definitive documentary about that war. Had I not seen the plentiful war stills of the battleground deceased, I might never have spotted "the clue".

But half a year later, there I was… now "prepared" to make an unsettling discovery.

"Paul, you're right… it is a little girl. I don't know how I didn't see that before!"

Mike had taken the photos forty years ago, yet had somehow missed that sad detail.

Those World at War documentary stills had captured so many soldiers, then at rest, with deceased hands launched in so many distinctive angles and positions that I guess my mind was imprinted with these sad images.

When I chanced upon similar in Mike's photo… I was compelled to look closer.

So, in the Flight 621 photo, I saw her peaceful hand, emerging from a sleeve, and lifelessly draped over an inner tubular structural piece of smashed DC-8.

I followed the hand to its source.

Somebody's little girl was sitting there, right there… in her final resting spot.

Her thick black hair, untossled. A defiant, thick, white hair tie-back-clip could readily be seen, keeping her hair perfectly in place amidst the horror!

The clip, however, could actually be one of those funky 70s style pair of big glasses pulled back over her forehead.

We'll never know.

I sat, in silence, with that photo for quite a while.

The picture was taken in the first hour of the crash. There are police officers and first responders busily walking around in the background, obviously, oblivious, to her.

I bet that didn't last long.

She is right out in the open, but also concealed within a medium sized mangled piece of fuselage wreckage! And somehow, she remained INTACT!

INTACT!

How did that happen?

I imagine that within the second hour, maybe the third, after these first hour photos were taken, she was found.

Likely, someone just walking by who had to do a double-take.

What a horrible, horrible, discovery.

It certainly was, for me. And I was only looking at a photo.

I'll be interviewing an OPP first responder this weekend. John Cooper. He was there the first day of the crash and also the second.

I'll keep you posted.

Finally, THE COVER above…that's how 621 looked seconds before impact. She corkscrewed over onto her back. This remains the primary reason why there are no crash photos of the wrecked Air Canada DC-8-63 with her tail readily seen… as one can see in most airliner disasters these days. The tail is usually spared in every airline disaster.

Nothing was spared when Flight 621 crashed in Castlemore, Ontario on July 5, 1970.

::.:. FLIGHT 621: 40th ANNIVERSARY - Two Boys, a Cat, and a Dog ::..

The Last Will and Testament of brothers Jacques and Jean Belanger

"IF WE DIE, WE GIVE…"

POUPONNE, MY CAT, I leave to Mionne Mallette.

Sports equipment to Daniel and Benoit Maillette. My typewriter to Evelyne Mallette, and my coin collection from Expo´67 to Jason Gagnon. Jacque's tape recorder to Norman Dupres. Handkerchief to Denis Perrault. Jean's Apollo XI rocket to Pierre Guertin…and so on…until all of his toys and possessions, and those of his younger brother, Jean (12), were given up to his friends and cousins.

Jacques (16) was mesmerized with the progress of aviation at the time.

The teenager knew about aviation, first hand, as his father was currently an Air Canada mechanic. So Jacques was really excited that he, indeed his whole family, would be flying on a brand new DC-8 "Stretch'…the very largest, and most advanced airliner at the time.

And yet, there was something wrong.

Did Jacques have a premonition?

Why did he think he might not return?

What did he feel?

Why did he insist on making a will, and giving it to his cousin, and best friend, Jean Mallette, just before boarding Air Canada Flight 621?

I'm sure Jacques' family made jokes about his insistence on creating a will for both him, and his brother. Their sister, Rosanne (10) did not create a will. I wonder what the Belanger family thought and said to one another…as they sat together on the ill-fated airplane, and events tragically unfolded. The knowing looks; the sad heads shaking.

Did his mother acknowledge, as mothers so often do when their own children amaze them, "Oh Jacques…you were right!"

These preceding paragraphs are only speculation but you can be sure some sort of exchange occurred.

On July 5th, 1970, at 8:10 am in the morning, Air Canada Flight 621 crashed in a farmer's field beside the West Humber, in Castlemore, Ontario nose first, left wing high…killing all 109 passengers and crew. A caged dog also perished.

And the whole Belanger family, all five of them, died together in Castlemore, 40 years ago.


Flight 621 In Memorium

Adams, Celine Fradette
Adams, Pierre J
Beaudin, Gaetan
Belanger, Mrs.
Belanger, Jacques
Belanger, Jean
Belanger, Roland
Belanger, Rosanne
Benson, Helen
Benson, Leonard
Benson, Mary
Benson, Richard
Bertrand, Ginette
Boosamra, Lynn
Boulanger, Guy
Bradshaw, Dollie
Cedilot, Robert J
Chapdeleine, Jeannine
Chapdeleine, Joanne
Chapdeleine, Mario
Charent, Jean Maurice
Clarke, Devona Olivia
Cote, Francine
Daoust, Yolande
Desmarais, Brigitte
Desmarais, G
Dicaire, Alice (Marie)
Dicaire, Gilles
Dicaire, Linda
Dicaire, Luke
Dicaire, Mark
Dion, Suzanne
Dore, Jacqueline
Earle, Lewella
Earle, Linda
Filippone, Francesco
Filippone, Linda
Filippone, Marie
Gee, Bernard
Goulet, Denise M
Grenier, Madeleine
Growse, Mrs.
Growse, Jane
Growse, Roger
Hamilton, Karen E
Hamilton, Peter Cameron
Herrmann, Ronald Alvin
Hill, Harry Gordon
Holiday, Claude
Houston, Irene Margaret
Houston, Wesley
Jakobsen, Vagn Aage
Labont, Gilles
Leclaire, Marie Rose
Leclaire, Oscar
Leduc, Henri W
Lepage, Claudette
Mailhiot, Claire Gagnon
Mailhiot, Gerald Bernard
Maitz, Gustave
Maitz, Karoline
McKettrick, Winnifred
McTague, John
Medizza, Carla
Mohammed, Dolly
Molino, Antonio
Molino, Michael (Michel)
Moore, Frederick T
Partridge, Andrea
Partridge, Carnie (Carnis) Ann
Partridge, Cyril Wayne
Phillips, Kenneth William
Poirier, Rita
Raymond, Gilles
Raymond, Martial
Robert, Aline
Robert, Georges E
Robidoux, Lionel
Rowland, Donald
Silverberg, Marci
Silverberg, Merle
Silverberg, Steven
Simon, Istvan
Simon, Mark
Smith, Dwight Lee
St. Laurent, Blanche
Stepping, Glenn Thomas
Sultan, Celia
Sultan, Jerald. M
Sultan, Robert. L
Szpakowicz, Borys
Szpakowicz, Serge
Tielens, Carmen
Tielens, Frederick
Tournovits, George
Tournovits, Soula (Athanasia)
Weinberg, Carla
Weinberg, S
Weinberg, Wendy
Whittingham, Jennifer
Whittingham, John
Whittingham, Reginald
Whybro, Mary Baker
Wieczorek, Hildegund
Witmer, Edgar
Wong, Ngar-Quon
Wong, Suzie
Wong, Wong (Mansing)
Woodward, Dallas J



© 1970 Mike Quatrale (OPP police photographer)
© Pierre Tremblay - Friends of Flight 621
© Paul Cardin - Friends of Flight 621

::.:. FLIGHT 621: 40th ANNIVERSARY - 621 Families at Ground Zero ::....

FLIGHT 621 VICTIM'S FAMILIES lay 109 white roses representing the 109 people who lost their lives on July 5, 1970.

Diarmuid Horgan (CANDEVCON Limited) and the landowners put together this 40th Anniversary Ceremony to bring the victim families together for the first time, to mark this solemn occasion together…and not alone…this year!

I PLANTED the Mayor of Brampton, Susan Fennell's flower, at her request…and everyone followed suit by either planting or laying their white rose down.

The flowers mark the spot where Flight 621 went nose first into the ground.

It was very hard for many of the families to EVEN THINK about coming to Ground Zero.

However, after Eric Weiczorek gave his heart-wrenching speech about the tender love he had for his wife, a wife who was taken from him after only 33 days of marriage, that just brought the house down.

Eric had been waiting 40 years to share his sorrow with those who understood.

He was now in good company.

The Flight 621 families understood.


Left to Right: Chris and Mike Holiday (Claude Holiday), Sikh land-owner, Lucie and Véronique Raymond (Marital Raymond) and the FAMOUS Boris Spremo!

The Weinburgs (Wendy, Carla, and Rita) are in the background.

Persons in brackets are the Flight 621 deceased… and the reason why the 621 families marked the 40th anniversary loss right here… at the former crash site.


See Mike Strobel's excellent Flight 621 article:
www.torontosun.com/news/columnists/mike_strobel/2010/07/0...

FLIGHT 621 ::: 40 th Anniversary ::: BRAMPTON'S LARGEST AIR DISASTER

LESS THAN 3 WEEKS away.

July 5, 2010 marks the 40th.

LYNDA FISHMAN, nee Weinburg, has emerged with the first book about Flight 621. Lynda lost her mother and two sisters on the ill-fated flight.

REPAIRING RAINBOWS is Lynda's personal account of the devastating effect Toronto's largest air disaster had, both on her, and her father.

You can get it here: repairingrainbows.com/index.php

Well, people ask, what is a DC-8?

Was it a big airplane?

How does it compare in size to a Jumbo…that's an airplane I know?

The Concorde is no longer flying…are any DC-8s still flying?

So many recurring questions…

My pictorial graphic answers MOST of these questions through exact 1/200 Air Canada replicas of a DC-8-63 (the exact type of DC-8 that crashed) and a Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet.

The JUMBO JET is the airplane that is the bulkier one in the pic, and the one with the hump. The DC-8 Stretch (there were many un-stretched versions) is the skinner one seen in the foreground).

As you can see the DC-8, or Stretch 8 (in air lingo slang), is a very big aircraft.

And on July 5, 1970, CF-TIW, tail number 878, with the exact livery seen in this photo, crashed nose first, left wing high in Castlemore, Ontario, 40 years ago.

All lives lost.


(ABX still flies a former Air Canada Stretch 8 into Toronto. A 71 version of the DC-8. The DC-8-71 is a modified 63 model having, larger, quieter, more fuel-efficient engines.

SEE: www.airliners.net/photo/DHL-(DHL-Airways)/McDonnell-Dougl... )

::: FLIGHT 621 — Picking Up the Pieces ::: DC-8, DC-8, DC-8 Parts to be ID'd.

WHEN A BRAND NEW 300 TONNE AIR CANADA DC-8 AIRLINER with a 109 people on board…slams nose first into a Castlemore farmer's field in 1970…at 400mph…well, parts of that airplane are going to be driven deep into the ground.

For a very long while.

Sooner, or later, however, those shattered pieces will work their way to the surface.

Whether human or aircraft.

These are some unidentified DC-8 parts from AIR CANADA CF-TIW, tail fin 878.

CAN any airmech ID any of these?

I HAD LEFT MY flash card at home…so my iPhone took-over camera duty with this leftside pic.

Not great, but not half bad as pictures go.

Actually this house (not shown) is for lease, and not for sale. What you're looking' at in the newer photo shows exactly where the underside of Flight 621's starboard DC-8 wing came to rest, 40 years ago, this July. The wing was nestled in between the sign, and the electrical box, spookily enough, back in the day.

The David Davies photo shows the burnt DC-8 wing, and members of the jury who were local professionals, from all walks of life, called upon to assist with the crash. The jury were to observe and review each aspect of the crash, in order to later assist in compiling a crash report for the province of Ontario's, Ministry of Transport.

By the time this large piece of the wing hit the ground, Air Canada Flight 621 was corkscrewing through her final airborne stage and would soon slam into the ground, nose first, at over 400 mph!

BEFORE HOMES were built in this newer development of Castlemore, and while the land was still a farmer's field, I found an old discarded "stubby" beer bottle on site. Remember those??

CAROL PARR, eye witness to the air disaster told me the OPP officers who were assigned to guard the DC-8 wing on that smidgeon of their 140 acres of property, sat in a lone chair just off to the side of the burnt wing. Day and night these officers dutifully kept watch, and enjoyed a beer or two, while on assignment. She could see the wing and the officers from the back of her house.

The current lot owners know nothing of the historical significance of their Upper Ridge Crescent property, in Castlemore, and its ancient connection with ill-fated Air Canada flight. The real-estate agent Devinder Kumar expressed shock when I relayed the sobering details. And the 109 deaths. The home is 3530 feet from Flight 621's point of impact, or two thirds of a mile away.

Ironically, the other part of the Air Canada Stretch 8's starboard wing, the top part, tore away, only a quarter mile away. That other part of the DC-8's wing went crashing through the roof of Carol's parent's bungalow, before coming to rest on the lawn in her parent's backyard.

Carol's parent's who happened to be outside at 8:08 am, on that bright, sunny, and horrific, Sunday morn…were not amused when the separated wing piece came crashing down! As early risers however, they were quite relieved that they weren't still sleeping in their bed on that tragic morning.

::: The Eerie, and Flight 621 .::.

You know that feelin'.

A chill down the spine.

You are alone BUT don't feel alone. A presence. Unsure what?

Strangely, it just happens sometimes when I'm doing 621 research. At home, or out in the field.

Anyways…

Rest assured… that every man-made idol humanity places his trust in, will be, thrown to the ground.

With Air Canada Flight 621, a Douglas DC-8, quite literally—

IMAGINE MY surprise, no shock! when I discovered this, last year.

A Douglas Aircraft Company (of California) ad, from the throwaway year of 1960. Proudly, and whimsically advertising their first jet airliner, the DC-8.

Raw power, folks! Fast, quiet, comfortable, dependable, and safe. Yes, safe. Rest assured, the moment you step aboard a DC-8 and enter the sky… you WILL have peace of mind.

Now, that was the hype.

The reality?

A little different with Flight 621, and many other DC-8 flights folks…

Back in the day there were "issues" with various mechanical aspects of the DC-8. A lot of incidents, accidents, and crashes were becoming the back-down-to-earth reality of this Douglas aircraft.

The Government of Canada even kept secret files on the DC-8 which can still be found in the national archives.

Through TCA and later Air Canada, which were both crown corporations, the Canadian federal government owned lots of DC-8s.

A whopping forty-four in total! Almost 10% of the entire McDonnell-Douglas production run, from 1958 through to 1972 was owned by Canadians, collectively.

And Big Brother, or the Government of Canada would later block the attempted purchase of McDonnell-Douglas DC-10s by Air Canada. The mounting evidence in the secret "8" files was a little too sobering. The "Feds" HAD had enough with Douglas, even though the DC-10's wings were made right in Toronto, right at the former Avro Canada plant!

Now, back to the ad.

Damn, it's eerie.

The ad shows an innocent blond-haired girl carrying a doll, and waving good-bye (to trusting parents).

The COLOURIZED INSET Jac Holland photo shows a similar doll found in the crash debris of Flight 621. Ironically, not even ten feet from the untouched doll was a lifeless, little, preteen blond-haired girl… amid tonnes, and tonnes, of burnt aircraft wreckage.

Age? About ten years old, I was told.

The former OPP police officer who returned with me to the crash site told me that he remembers her well. Too well.

She lay there in silence as he sadly looked down at her. Her blond hair, gently responding to a breeze, making its' way through the field.

Fifty-five minutes previous, she too, had waved good-bye.

Nobody knew it would be her last such wave.

And now, her family, would be left picking up the pieces of their personal tragedy for the rest of their lives.

“AIR CANADA 254! Do you see traffic at 1 o’clock…"

…about 4 1/2 miles???”

“Yeh, 621 has ah, crashed–“

So there it was. The pilot of an inbound Air Canada Vickers Viscount, Flight 254, who was next in the (landing) slot, right behind the ill-fated Flight 621 “Stretch” 8 (DC-8-63) confirmed that 621 had indeed crashed.

And it was in this chatter between the YYZ Tower, Departures, AC 621, and AC 254 that it all unraveled for Flight 621. And while all blame for the eventual outcome for the accident seems to fall on the First and Second Officers…that IS NOT my opinion.

If you read the almost 200 page report (half a page, of which, is pictured above), and you have attention to detail, the truth indeed rises above all the “chatter” surrounding the accident.

The truth is in the talkback.

Both then, and 33 years later when I discovered it. Additionally, a little legwork as the police say…and well…

Wait for the book, when I lay it all out, in true irrefutable fashion ~

I will give one clue, however.

Captain Peter Hamilton, a former decorated WW II RCAF Halifax bomber pilot and hero, who was shot down and captured by the Nazis, and even spent time as an POW for his country, for the duration of the war, certainly, certainly, had the deck loaded against him on that day.

Mr. Hamilton who has my deepest and heartfelt respect, tried desperately, and in vain, to save his “ship” on that horrific day and that is what makes it so much a tragedy, and not just an accident.

I am cut to the heart, and enraged, every time I evision that highly skilled, and experienced aircrew, all of them, frantically trying, trying, to turn it all around…and they could have!

They could have!

That is the bitter and tragic truth!

Yes, even after losing an engine, and even though the starboard wing was on fire. They could have. They had both the experience, and skill. These were Air Canada jetliner pilots for gosh sakes! Not just Cessna 172 weekend warrior wannabees!!

Except for one thing…critical information was denied them at the fateful (turn-it-all-around) moment, when had they most assuredly needed it.

And that made all the difference, folks……between safely landing and crashing.

When the compromised Air Canada DC-8 finally plunged earthward, the SO Rowland apologized one last time to his captain, Peter Hamilton for his error with prematurely deploying the spoilers. But Peter was already gone. It was determined that he suffered a massive heart attack just after entering the descent.

And while there is more…that too will have to wait for the book.

RIP Flight 621.

Flight 621: And the “stars” fell from the skies…

THERE IT IS…a sad, sad, symbol and reminder of the unfinished business of Flight 621.

Bone bits and aircraft bits are still found in the Flight 621 crash “arena “ to this day!

This farmer's field is littered with thousands of them.

Here lies a blue, broken, Air Canada stir stick, normally finished off on the top with a prominent star. Now only a broken and battered star. And the stir part…long gone. Or buried still.

Once used for cocktails on those premium 1960-70s flights, “Galaxy” referred to Air Canada’s connosieur flight class. The passenger cabin’s ceiling on those specially themed DC-8s were actually molded in blue plastic. Reflective flecks of silver were added to them, and these sparkled (stars) when you gazed upwards at the DC-8's ceiling from the safety of your seat.

BUT ON July 5, 1970…thirty-eight years ago today, the stars fell from the sky.

And crashed, in Castlemore (Brampton), Ontario.

All 109 passengers and crew of Air Canada Flight 621 lost their lives that day.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow


Flight 621 In Memorium

Adams, Celine Fradette
Adams, Pierre J
Beaudin, Gaetan
Belanger, Mrs.
Belanger, Jacques
Belanger, Jean
Belanger, Roland
Belanger, Rosanne
Benson, Helen
Benson, Leonard
Benson, Mary
Benson, Richard
Bertrand, Ginette
Boosamra, Lynn
Boulanger, Guy
Bradshaw, Dollie
Cedilot, Robert J
Chapdeleine, Jeannine
Chapdeleine, Joanne
Chapdeleine, Mario
Charent, Jean Maurice
Clarke, Devona Olivia
Cote, Francine
Daoust, Yolande
Desmarais, Brigitte
Desmarais, G
Dicaire, Alice (Marie)
Dicaire, Gilles
Dicaire, Linda
Dicaire, Luke
Dicaire, Mark
Dion, Suzanne
Dore, Jacqueline
Earle, Lewella
Earle, Linda
Filippone, Francesco
Filippone, Linda
Filippone, Marie
Gee, Bernard
Goulet, Denise M
Grenier, Madeleine
Growse, Jane
Growse, Roger
Hamilton, Karen E
Hamilton, Peter Cameron
Herrmann, Ronald Alvin
Hill, Harry Gordon
Holiday, Claude
Houston, Irene Margaret
Houston, Wesley
Jakobsen, Vagn Aage
Labont, Gilles
Leclaire, Marie Rose
Leclaire, Oscar
Leduc, Henri W
Lepage, Claudette
Mailhiot, Claire Gagnon
Mailhiot, Gerald Bernard
Maitz, Gustave
Maitz, Karoline
McKettrick, Winnifred
McTague, John
Medizza, Carla
Mohammed, Dolly
Molino, Antonio
Molino, Michael (Michel)
Moore, Frederick T
Partridge, Andrea
Partridge, Carnie (Carnis) Ann
Partridge, Cyril Wayne
Phillips, Kenneth William
Poirier, Rita
Raymond, Gilles
Raymond, Martial
Robert, Aline
Robert, Georges E
Robidoux, Lionel
Rowland, Donald
Silverberg, Marci
Silverberg, Merle
Silverberg, Steven
Simon, Istvan
Simon, Mark
Smith, Dwight Lee
St. Laurent, Blanche
Stepping, Glenn Thomas
Sultan, Celia
Sultan, Jerald. M
Sultan, Robert. L
Szpakowicz, Borys
Szpakowicz, Serge
Tielens, Carmen
Tielens, Frederick
Tournovits, George
Tournovits, Soula (Athanasia)
Weinberg, Carla
Weinberg, S
Weinberg, Wendy
Whittingham, Jennifer
Whittingham, John
Whittingham, Reginald
Whybro, Mary Baker
Wieczorek, Hildegund
Witmer, Edgar
Wong, Ngar-Quon
Wong, Suzie
Wong, Wong (Mansing)
Woodward, Dallas J

FOR MORE on this UNBELIEVABLE STORY in our day, and age, see:
FLIGHT 621

Brampton’s LARGEST AIR DISASTER…Flight 621::: 1970

THEN.

Flight 621.

Arriving at YYZ (Toronto) from Montreal, didn't make it.

It crashed here in Castlemore (now Brampton) instead.

Here's how it looked the DAY AFTER the crash.

109 people dead, mostly Montreal residents and Americans.

July 06, 1970.


NOW: See Below

(from a slightly different vantage point)



TOMORROW…2008 yields from the 621 field!

Brampton’s LARGEST AIR DISASTER…Flight 621

…happened right here in 1970 on an Air Canada "Stretch 8" arriving from Montreal.

AND PLENTY is afoot right now!

Follow the NOTES.

That’s it!


Well, there is MORE: homepage.mac.com/friendsofflight621/Menu2.html

On July 5, 1970 while Air Canada “California Galaxy” Flight 621 passed over the threshold of Runway 32, at Toronto International Airport, the First Officer, Donald Rowland, inadvertently deployed the speedbrakes (spoilers) while the “Stretch 8” was only 60 feet above the ground.

An excessive sink rate was the immediate result and Pratt and Whitney Engine Number 4 struck the runway, and was immediately torn off. Captain Peter Hamilton unaware of the engine loss, and the subsequent wing fire, initiated a go-around.

Airborne for three and a half minutes, CF-TIW suffered three explosions that were recorded on the CVR tapes. Engine Number 3 was then lost at this time. With the aircraft’s structural integrity finally compromised, flight could no longer be sustained. Now seven miles from the airport, CF-TIW crashed nose down, left wing high into a farmer’s field in Castlemore, Ontario (now a part of Brampton) at 400 mph, only one hundred and fifty feet from the occupied Burgsma residence.

All 109 passengers and crew perished as Flight 621 became Toronto's worst air disaster. This was also the first hull loss of a McDonnell Douglas DC-8-63 series.

FLIGHT 621: Same Story…

…different year.

There’s someone’s SKULL BONE piece, emerging from the ground, in July of 2007.

From Flight 621.

Their partial skeletal remains, just left there, year-in-year-out to bake in the sun in a Brampton field…located in in the now forgotten Toronto-Gore Township.

37 years ago today, Flight 621 slammed into the ground, killing all 109 passengers and crew.

Flight 621 In Memorium

Adams, Celine Fradette
Adams, Pierre J
Beaudin, Gaetan
Belanger, Mrs.
Belanger, Jacques
Belanger, Jean
Belanger, Roland
Belanger, Rosanne
Benson, Helen
Benson, Leonard
Benson, Mary
Benson, Richard
Bertrand, Ginette
Boosamra, Lynn
Boulanger, Guy
Bradshaw, Dollie
Cedilot, Robert J
Chapdeleine, Jeannine
Chapdeleine, Joanne
Chapdeleine, Mario
Charent, Jean Maurice
Clarke, Devona Olivia
Cote, Francine
Daoust, Yolande
Desmarais, Brigitte
Desmarais, G
Dicaire, Alice (Marie)
Dicaire, Gilles
Dicaire, Linda
Dicaire, Luke
Dicaire, Mark
Dion, Suzanne
Dore, Jacqueline
Earle, Lewella
Earle, Linda
Filippone, Francesco
Filippone, Linda
Filippone, Marie
Gee, Bernard
Goulet, Denise M
Grenier, Madeleine

Growse, Jane
Growse, Roger
Hamilton, Karen E
Hamilton, Peter Cameron
Herrmann, Ronald Alvin
Hill, Harry Gordon
Holiday, Claude
Houston, Irene Margaret
Houston, Wesley
Jakobsen, Vagn Aage
Labont, Gilles
Leclaire, Marie Rose
Leclaire, Oscar
Leduc, Henri W
Lepage, Claudette
Mailhiot, Claire Gagnon
Mailhiot, Gerald Bernard
Maitz, Gustave
Maitz, Karoline
McKettrick, Winnifred
McTague, John
Medizza, Carla
Mohammed, Dolly
Molino, Antonio
Molino, Michael (Michel)
Moore, Frederick T
Partridge, Andrea
Partridge, Carnie (Carnis) Ann
Partridge, Cyril Wayne
Phillips, Kenneth William
Poirier, Rita
Raymond, Gilles
Raymond, Martial
Robert, Aline
Robert, Georges E
Robidoux, Lionel
Rowland, Donald
Silverberg, Marci
Silverberg, Merle
Silverberg, Steven
Simon, Istvan
Simon, Mark
Smith, Dwight Lee
St. Laurent, Blanche
Stepping, Glenn Thomas
Sultan, Celia
Sultan, Jerald. M
Sultan, Robert. L
Szpakowicz, Borys
Szpakowicz, Serge
Tielens, Carmen
Tielens, Frederick
Tournovits, George
Tournovits, Soula (Athanasia)
Weinberg, Carla
Weinberg, S
Weinberg, Wendy
Whittingham, Jennifer
Whittingham, John
Whittingham, Reginald
Whybro, Mary Baker
Wieczorek, Hildegund
Witmer, Edgar
Wong, Ngar-Quon
Wong, Suzie
Wong, Wong (Mansing)
Woodward, Dallas J

FOR MORE on this UNBELIEVABLE STORY in our day, and age, see:
FLIGHT 621