Vancouver – Prince George – Fort Saint John – Fort Nelson – Watson Lake – Whitehorse

On July 8, 1965 at 03:41 PM, Vancouver – Prince George – Fort Saint John – Fort Nelson – Watson Lake – Whitehorse experienced a crash involving Douglas DC-6, operated by Canadian Pacific Airlines - CP Air, with the event recorded near Hundred Mile House British Columbia.

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was flight at a plain, valley crash site.

52 people were known to be on board, 52 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 6, crew fatalities: 6, passengers on board: 46, passenger fatalities: 46, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is terrorism act, hijacking, sabotage. Flight 21 was a scheduled domestic flight from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory via Prince George, Fort St. John, Fort Nelson in British Columbia and Watson Lake, Yukon Territory. At 1442 hours PST, the aircraft took off on an instrument flight plan for Prince George, via Victor 300 and Blue 22 airways. In the vicinity of Hope, north-bound on Blue 22 airway, it was sighted by CPA Flight 22 and communication was established. Shortly afterwards at 1517 hours Flight 21 requested and received clearance to proceed from its position north of Hope direct to Williams Lake, which track would pass to the west of Ashcroft. At 1529 hours, it reported to the Vancouver Air Traffic Control Centre that it had passed Ashcroft at 1527 hours at 16 000 ft and was estimating William Lake at 1548 hours. This transmission was acknowledged by the Vancouver Centre. At 1538 hours, Vancouver Centre called Flight 21 and did not receive a reply. About two minutes later, three "mayday" calls were heard by Vancouver Centre. At approximately the same time a four-engined aircraft, subsequently identified as Flight 21, was observed by witnesses flying in the clear over the Gustafson Lake area about 20 miles west of 100 Mile House, B.C. The aircraft appeared to be in normal flight when an explosion was heard, following which smoke was observed and the tail separated from the fuselage. The main portion of the wreckage assumed a nose down attitude and spiraled to the left until it crashed into a wooded area about 4.5 miles north of Gustafson Lake. The accident occurred at 1541 hours. There were no survivors among the 52 occupants.

Aircraft reference details include registration CF-CUQ, MSN 43844, year of manufacture 1953.