Death in the Arctic–Part One

I should warn you – I am jumping ahead many years as I have had a case of writer’s block lately and also I’ll tell you that what is about to be written is not altogether pleasant though you may find it interesting.  I have been undergoing treatment for pre-malignant skin tumours on my face for the past month.  The medication, 5-fluorouracil, is a very powerful cancer agent; one of the side effects can be feeling unwell which results in lack of motivation to do very much, including writing.  However, the treatment is working very well as my face has been stripped of much of the epidermis (outer layer of the skin) - this is quite uncomfortable and interferes with mundane activities such as sleeping or consuming spicy foods.  This condition arises from many years of sun exposure, for example 20 years of sailing, thousands of kilometers of riding motorcycles not to mention the years spent growing up on the prairie with inadequate skin protection.  So please encourage everyone to use sunscreen, wear a hat, etc.

So here we go, back to the future as they say.  I’ll tell you later about how I arrived at this place in my professional career and also regale you with further stories from the prairies.

November 1974, Dear diary,

The phone rang at about 0400 this morning.  To an accident investigator, the telephone is about as welcome as a cobra because most of the time when it rings he will be away from home and his family for days or even months.  It is difficult to describe one’s feelings as you approach the dreaded thing.  There is a mixture of dread, anxiety and a sinking feeling in the pit of the stomach, almost a feeling of sickness.  With much trepidation and with shaking hands I answered.

The sleepy sounding voice on the other end stated “a Lockheed L188 Electra has gone down in the high Arctic and the news that we have is that there are at least 32 fatalities.  Be at the airport in two hours prepared to spend a few weeks away.  We will take a commercial flight to Calgary and the oil company that owned the Electra will fly us up north on its sister ship. We have arranged for your tickets.”

So I hurriedly threw a few things in my kit – it was always nearly ready since I was a member of the “Go Team” -  and rushed to the airport to meet up with the other investigators.  I was dressed in my heavy cold weather gear as it was, after all, winter and the high Arctic is notorious for being extremely cold and inhospitable.  As we winged our way from Winnipeg to Calgary we discussed the case on hand and began to formulate our approach.

Upon arriving in Calgary, we were briefed by the oil company management and safety personnel.  According to them the aircraft had departed Calgary, landing first of all in Edmonton to pick up other oil company employees, and then heading to Rae Point which was way up north, above the range of normal maps and was actually north of the north magnetic pole!  On approach into Rea Point, contact had been lost with the pilots and so, some time later, a Twin Otter belonging to the RCMP took off to have a look.  The crew immediately spotted flames about 4 km. from the end of the runway and, having confirmed that it was an aircraft wreckage, rescuers were dispatched to the scene.

What they found was a carnage:  There were aircraft parts scattered over the ice and only two survivors – the First Officer and the Flight Engineer.  The First Officer was not badly injured but the Flight Engineer had frostbitten hands which he later had to have amputated.  The Electra had gone down on new sea ice in line with the runway.  Electra’s were one of the last of the high performance turboprop aircraft and were  powered by four engines.  The wings are quite stubby resulting in quite a high wing loading and hence the approach speeds are about as fast as a pure jet aircraft.  These machines were used extensively in the north after the airlines got rid of them as they converted to pure jet aircraft like Boeings and Douglas airliners.

Rea Point was an oil exploration camp, searching for undersea oil in the high arctic.  Since it was inaccessible by land all of the buildings and equipment had to be flown in by Hercules aircraft and were then bolted together to form barracks, cookhouses, storage facilities, offices and meeting rooms.  During the winter, their large-tired machines were dispatched over the ice to look for potential drilling sites.  When they found a likely spot, they would flood the surface of the ice in order to fashion a runway strong enough for the Hercules aircraft who would fly the drilling equipment to the site.  As summer approached the wells would be capped until the next season.  Since magnetic compasses were useless there, all navigation had to be done using radio beacons and sun compasses.  Like almost all northern camps gambling and alcohol were prohibited.  In fact one of the oil company employees had his life saved by a bottle of whiskey when a search of his luggage was performed.  He was kicked off the flight in Edmonton – I wonder if he still has that bottle!

After several hours of flying we approached Rea Point.  I rode in the jump seat as the head of the human factors team so I could observe the approach to see if I could pick up any clues of what may possibly have happened.  The survivors had already been airlifted to Edmonton so we did not have an opportunity to interview them right away, which is the usual case.  Accompanying us on the trip were six RCMP officers, some company management, two divers and and an insurance broker.  We spent a couple of hours discussing the event and then grabbed a couple of hours of shuteye.  At first light (there is not very much light at that time of the year) we gathered for a further briefing.

Everyone was anxious to head out onto the ice, but due to concern about the condition of the ice we organized into teams of four who would be roped together and tethered by a long rope to safer ice.  Fresh sea ice is, after all, not very strong and also the ice had been broken up by the crash.  In addition, it was extremely cold – the equivalent temperature (like wind chill) was minus 103 degrees Fahrenheit.  Cold weather gear was an absolute requirement.  Most of us had some part of our bodies frostbitten – for me it was a couple of fingers as I had to remove my heavy winter mitts in order to operate my camera.  These photos were taken by me on my Pentax Spotmatic.  I kept the camera warm by tucking it in behind my neck in the parka and only pulled it out when I knew that a photo was warranted.


We all headed across the old ice, some of us in snowmobiles which were kept running 24/7 or else they wouldn’t start.  My companion, the insurance adjuster, and I stopped at the edge of the piled up pack ice to view the scene of devastation.  As we sat there, I detected a movement to the left of the snowmobile – it was an enormous polar bear and it stood right up attaining its maximum height – those things are huge!  It was less than 20 feet away and I thought that we were goners for sure.  I guess that the sound of our engine spooked it as, after looking at two potential meals for a few seconds, it ran away to our left towards my medical colleague, Dr. Roy Hewson who happened to be on foot.  I fretted about Roy for a couple of minutes but the bear kept racing past him.  These bears continued to be a bit of a nuisance as there were still bodies on the ice and the aircraft had been carrying ten thousand pounds of meat for human consumption in the camp.  Polar bears are also man eaters and they will actually hunt humans for food.  In fact while we were up there a cook in another camp had stepped outside of the cook house for a smoke and was killed and dragged off by a polar bear proving that smoking is injurious to one’s health.  Since only northern aboriginals were allowed to kill them, we had an armed Eskimo accompanying us at all times.  The oil company had also placed rifles and shotguns in the wreckage just in case – they hadn’t figured out that they would be unable to fire due to the cold!

My friend questioned me about dealing with polar bears.  I told him that we should always walk together and if we saw a bear approaching run like crazy.  He told me that he doubted that I could outrun one of these creatures, to which I replied “probably not, but I’m pretty sure that I can outrun you!”

Little did I know that I would be spending the next two years working on this case.

     Next – Death in the Arctic – Part Two - Recovery and Discovery