Ginger Coote Airways | Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives

En route from Vancouver to Zeballos, the engine caught fire. The pilot reduced his altitude in an attempt to make an emergency landing. Upon touchdown, the single engine aircraft overturned and came to rest upside down, bursting into flames. All four occupants were seriously injured and the aircraft was destroyed.

Probable cause:

Engine fire in flight.

Crash of a Fairchild 51A near Port Alberni: 4 killed

Date & Time: May 27, 1938

Type of aircraft:

Fairchild 51

Operator:

Ginger Coote Airways

Registration:

CF-AUX

Flight Phase:

Flight

Flight Type:

Scheduled Revenue Flight

Survivors:

Site:

Mountains

Schedule:

Vancouver - Zeballos

MSN:

769

YOM:

1934

Location:

Country:

Region:

Crew on board:

Crew fatalities:

Pax on board:

Pax fatalities:

Other fatalities:

Total fatalities:

Circumstances:

On a flight from Vancouver to the Zeballos Gold Mine, the single engine aircraft hit tall trees and crashed in a wooded remote area located near Alberni Canal, west of Port Alberni. Nine months later, on 9 March 1939, British Columbia police found the wreckage of the missing aircraft strewn at the foot of several tall trees in a bush-covered hill section near Alberni Canal (presently Alberni Inlet) about 13 miles (21 km) from Port Alberni. Inside the crumpled fuselage were the remains of the missing persons.
Crew:
Len Waagens, pilot.
Passengers:
Mary Nicholson (wife of George Nicholson, postmaster and airline agent at Zeballos),
Charles Rumsey,
H. Boyd.