A tragic plane crash in the Fraser Valley once killed 62 people, including five professional Canadian football players who had just played in an all-star game at Empire Stadium in Vancouver. Their remains are still there.
It was December of 1956 when a cross-Canada flight from Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»to Toronto took off from YVR Airport. Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810-9's first stop was supposed to be Calgary.
At this time there were vending machines at YVR where people could buy life insurance at the last minute. With the weather being bad the 59 passengers collectively bought $2,000,000 of it - a large sum in 1956.
One of the plane's engines caught fire when they were over Manning Park near Hope, so the pilots asked air traffic control if they could turn around and go back to Vancouver.
They got approval to do that but instead of turning left and doing a loop like they were supposed to do, they turned right, crashing right into Mount Slesse near Chilliwack.
All 62 people on board died. And since it was winter they didn’t find the remains of the crash until the following May, five months later.
The remains of the passengers are buried on the mountain where the debris field is. A cairn there honours those who lost their lives.
The area was designated as an official heritage site by the B.C. government in 1995 and a trail has been established that people hike to visit it. It takes about six hours both ways.
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Tragedy in the air
