On April 28, 1947, Trans-Canada Airlines Flight 3 took off from Lethbridge, Alberta on a routine flight to Vancouver. It never arrived.
Rice Lake:
A couple of Sundays ago, my friend Virginia and I went for a walk around North Vancouver’s Rice Lake. We stopped to pay our respects at the two boulders near the entrance. These boulders are a memorial for Trans-Canada Airlines Flight 3. TCA—which eventually morphed into Air Canada—took off from Lethbridge, Alberta on April 28, 1947 on a routine flight to Vancouver. Just after 11:00 pm Captain Pike, a former fighter pilot, was flying over Maple Ridge and confirmed his approach to Vancouver International Airport.
Vanished without a trace:
And, in what sounds like an episode from Manifest, the twin engine Lockheed Lodestar and the 15 passengers and crew disappeared for the next 47 years.
I was working on the city desk at the Vancouver Sun on September 29, 1994 when the mystery was finally solved. News came in that the plane had been discovered in a deep gully between Mount Seymour and Mount Elsay—30 kilometres northeast of the airport, under heavy first-growth cover. Also found was a gold ring, bracelet, a woman’s watch, cigarette case and lighter.
Found by a hiker:
Mike Neale, the 20-year-old who led searchers to the site in 1994 actually found the plane two years earlier, he just assumed it was old wreckage that had been discovered years before. It wasn’t until he showed some of his photos to a historian at the Canadian Museum of Flight that they realized that he had stumbled across the missing TCA Flight 3. The memorial was erected on April 28, 1995 and dedicated to the 15 people who lost their lives.
Anatasia Lesiuk and Margaret Trerise were young flight attendants heading to Vancouver for a few days of R&R. Jane Warren and Margaret Hamblin both 21 were returning to their jobs as student nurses at Vancouver General Hospital. David Vance was a lumber buyer from Winnipeg, Marjorie and Cecil Nugent also from Winnipeg were starting their honeymoon. Victor Armand was an executive with Famous Players in Vancouver.
PASSENGER list:
Anatasia Lesiuk, Trail
Margaret Trerise, Vancouver
Jane Warren, Weyburn, Sask
Margaret Hamblin, Qu’Appelle, Sask
David Vance, St. Vital, Manitoba
Lance Millor, Vancouver
James Hugh Woolf, London, England
W. Robson, Winnipeg
Victor Armand, Vancouver
Clarence Reaper, Westmount, Quebec
Marjorie Nugent, Winnipeg
Cecil Nugent, Winnipeg
Crew:
Captain W.G. Pike, Vancouver
First Officer A.A. Stewart, Vancouver
Flight Attendant: 24-year-old Helen Saisbury, New Westminster
Related:
© All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all blog content copyright Eve Lazarus.
22 comments on “Remembering Trans-Canada Airlines Flight 3”
But…. I was hoping to learn what happened. Is that known?
Thanks James, I’ve added a line to the story! As far as I can tell they couldn’t find a cause of the crash.
https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19470428-0
This site has cause as Controlled Flight into Terrain, which usually means the pilot did not see the mountain and flew straight into it, i.e. no mechanical problems.
Remarkable story and one, for which I knew nothing about until now!
I also had never heard of this crash , there has certainly been a few around the province….the story about the plane that went down close to 100 Mile House on route from Vancouver to Pr. George , possibly due to a bomb on board also an interesting story..
Yes it remains a mystery, not far from here.
I lived in bridge lake and 100 mile for many years I have never heard of this crash where was it, is there wreckage?
Good morning, I have never seen the memorial. Whereabouts near rice lake is that located?
Just near the entrance – instead of going right you go straight ahead
Why were there only five passengers listed on the memorial, when there were 15 on the flight?
There were 12 passengers and 3 crew – they’re all listed on the rock
All 15 are listed on the rock, in 5 rows, with 2 to 4 names per row. Perhaps you saw the 5 rows and didn’t realize how many names per row. May they Rest In Peace.
Did they find remains or DNA?
Eve,
I found this article while reading about the Switzer house.
My family has an interesting story about this crash. My mom and eldest sibling ( he was an infant) were flying from Winnipeg to Vancouver and were booked on this flight and another exactly 1 week earlier. She had a large trunk arriving by train so she booked both flights and was going to cancel one depending on the trunk’s exact arrival time. She received a call from her sister-in-law, who lived in Vancouver, to say the trunk had arrived, and she was able to take the earlier flight and cancel the second one which ended up being the crash. In 1994, she heard about the wreckage discovery on her car radio while driving up Taylor Way. She was forever grateful about the timing of the trunk for our family and thought about those who perished.
I always stop at the stone with the names when visiting Rice Lake.
Karen Barnett
Wow, talk about divine intervention! Thanks for sharing your story.
my dad norman middleton was close friend of cecil nugent ,he attended cecils wedding as his best man and basically put he and his new bride on the flight in winnipeg , my father has since passed . i thought i would relate this story as norms son i was always intrigued by this story.JOHN MIDDLETON.
How sad. I hope that he was still alive when the plane was found and knew what happened to his friends.
Could I point out that you have mistranscribed the name of the English casualty? It should read J H Woolf.
James Hugh Woolf was born in 1913, the son of Edward Samuel Woolf and his wife Alice, nee Swift, and was youngest of 4 sons. He was the joint managing director of E Brain & Co., Foley China Works, Longton, Staffordshire and on a business trip to North America.
His father had died of wounds on the Western Front in 1915. His eldest brother died of natural causes in 1946 and one of his middle brothers was killed 1944 in Cassino, Italy, in air operations whilst serving with the SOE.
So widowed Alice lost three of her four sons in the space of 3 years. She also outlived her last remaining son and died 1972.
Hi Bill, my apologies for the error. I’ve corrected the post and I really appreciate hearing more of his background. Such a sad story. Poor Alice. Best, Eve
Were any photos of the wreck site published? I only ask because I wonder how much of the aircraft remained intact.
[…] See: Remembering TCA Flight 3 […]
My mother, sister, age 8 and I, 18 months were scheduled for the late flight from Lethbridge. One of the passengers scheduled for the early flight heard a lady travelling with 2 small children wanted a early flight but only 1 seat was available. The passenger out of kindness gave up a seat and took the late flight. My aunt in Vancouver heard of the missing flight the next morning and called my dad in a panic to find we had arrived on the early flight. It haunts me to think of the passengers and their families who lost loved ones. The memorial has a special meaning for my sister and I.