A Quiet Hike Into History

 Hullo! Today we are going on a little hike to visit the site of a tragedy.

We are going up the slope of Mt. Benson.

The sun isn't even up yet. We wanted to get an early start cause it's a bit of a steep climb.

This is a beary well-travelled trail. A lot of mountain runners come up here. It takes about 2-3 hours to get to the top of Benson, but we are not going that far.

Always important to have a plan!! Can't tell you how many people have had to get rescued from Benson - didn't time it right and the sun set and they were stuck!

I do have to say though... they have really improved their markers!! There are so many trails in here and it's good to see this.

Right... up we go then!

And a bit of a break to watch the sun rise...

There are even trail markers, which is beary handy!

So are you wondering where we are going??

Well, back in 1951, on the evening of 17 October, a military surplus Canso PBY-5A, flying for Queen Charlotte Airlines (CF-FOQ) was travelling from Kitimat (farther up the coast) down to Vancouver.

 

It was dark and rainy by the time the plane got down to the Vancouver area. When the pilot flew over some city lights, he radioed the control tower at YVR that he could see the lights of Vancouver. He turned westward so he could bank out over the Strait of Georgia and make the turn into YVR. Unfortunately, the lights he saw were not of Vancouver, but of Nanaimo. The plane turned west and crashed into a rock face on the lower slopes of Mount Benson. All 23 passengers and crew were killed and the wreckage was scattered over a wide area on the mountain.

We had heard about the WW2 area Canso crash near Tofino, but had never heard of this story. We read up on it and learned that there were still bits of wreckage up on the mountain. And there is.

Above here, you can see the steep rocky slope.

There are odd bits and pieces of metal scattered throughout the woods.

There used to be more, judging by some photos we've seen from 2016.

Once you start seeing them, you can't stop...

It's really quite sad. Some local residents hard the plane flying very low and then heard the explosion. They climbed up to the site but there was nothing they could do.

Apparently the pilot was not certified for instrument flying and some speculate he hadn't set the magnetic declination correctly in Kitimat.

The plane was flying a bunch of workers down from the Alcan smelter project near Kitimat.

It's a beary sad story, and even sadder to think that some pieces of the wreckage had disappeared over the years.

What a terrible tragedy.

We continued up the trail for a few more minutes, to a viewpoint. 

It's nowhere near the top of Benson but...

There are still gorgeous views up here!

Sometimes it's nice to just sit and soak up the sun.

I had also heard that there was a memorial to the people who lost their lives, at the local cemetery. So we went to check that out.

They only identified 20 of the 23 crash victims. Some remains were repatriated to the home towns of the victims, but 12 of them were buried here in a mass grave.

In 2025, a new plaque was laid next to the original one. At the time of the crash, it was the worst aviation disaster in BC history and the second worst in Canada. Rest in peace.

Other Info

Plaque Dedication - https://www.nanaimohistoricalsociety.ca/meetings-events/august-16-plane-crash-cemetery-plaque-dedication 

2021 Field Trip to the Crash Site - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ce99haWOac 

Article on the Crash - https://www.nanaimohistoricalsociety.ca/articles/wreck-queen-charlotte-airlines