Moose Jaw, SK Airliner And Trainer Crash, Apr 1954

38 DIE AT MOOSE JAW AS 2 PLANES COLLIDE.

TCA NORTH STAR, TRAINER CRASH.

Moose Jaw (Special) -- An estimated 38 people were killed here about 11:15 a.m. (CST) Thursday when a four-engined North Star TCA airliner collided in mid-air with an air force Harvard trainer.
First reports indicated the TCA plane, with about 35 aboard, was the Montreal-Vancouver flight
(number nine), and was on the Winnipeg-to-Calgary leg of the journey when the carsh occurred. Two were believed aboard the Harvard trainer, which was thought to be from a nearby RCAF training school. One of the men aboard the Harvard may have escaped death.
Aboard the TCA North Star plane were 26 revenue passengers, five company employees and four members of the crew, according to TCA.
Names of the crew, announced by TCA are:
Capt. I. H. BELL, Vancouver.
First Officer D. W. GUTHERIE, Vancouver.
Steward LOU PENNER, Vancouver.
Stewardess M. L. QUINNEY, Vancouver.
First reports said, two children of GORDON HUME, service station operator, were missing after one of the giant engines from the airliner crashed into the HUME house, completely demolishing it. But it was later reported the children had not been home at the time.
Two homes were afire and rescue workers were picking up bodies on a golf course at the northeast corner of Moose Jaw.
There were no firm reports of casualties among residents but a cleaning woman in one house was believed missing.
The impact of the collision ripped apart both planes, strewing bodies over a wide area. One craft crashed into the golf course, the other into two homes.
TCA officials in Winnipeg declined to make any statement as to the number of Manitobans on the plane, either as passengers or crew. The flight records were removed from the reservations officer and it is expected that no information will be given until after next-of-kin have been notified.
Names of crew members were released later.
Had it not been for high winds on Wednesday, the tragedy would have been averted. Flight 9 originally was to have gone through WInnipeg Wednesday evening, but was detained by the weather, leaving this morning.
At Winnipeg, F. W. Bone, district superintendent
for air regulations, department of transport, said he was launching an immediate investigation into the crash. his assistant, J. D. Creighton, was on the scene Thursday noon, after learning of the mid-air collision while he was in Regina.
(It was difficult at noon Thursday to get a long-distance call through to Moose Jaw. Telephone officials report the switchboard was jammed with calls.)
J. H. Sandgath, head of TCA operations in Winnipeg and executive director to the president of the airways, left at noon for the crash scene.
Today's crash was the third major accident for Trans-Canada since 1941. Feb. 6 that year 12 persons were killed at Armstrong in northwestern
Ontario. Fifteen were killed April 29, 1947, in a crash near Vancouver.
Eye-witnesses said the Harvard smashed into the right wing of the North Star, tearing if off.

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