On This Day: Hercules crash near Alert, 1991

A Canadian Forces Hercules transport carrying 18 people crashed on the tundra near Canadian Forces Station Alert, on northern Ellesmere Island, on Oct. 30, 1991, killing five and leaving 13 survivors to endure a storm in the Arctic dark until rescuers could reach them.

The aircraft, Hercules 130322, was flying as Boxtop 22, the 22nd flight of the second major resupply mission to Alert that year, according to Veterans Affairs Canada. It had left Thule Air Base in Greenland and was approaching the station, the northernmost permanently inhabited place in the world, in total winter darkness.

Veterans Affairs Canada puts the time of the crash at about 4:40 p.m. Other sources differ on the exact hour. Veterans Affairs gives the crash site as 16 kilometres from Alert, while the Aviation Safety Network lists it at about 22 kilometres south-east of the station and elsewhere in the same entry as 10.5 miles (about 17 kilometres).

The aircraft carried five crew and 13 passengers, according to Legion Magazine. Veterans Affairs says many of the passengers were communications researchers from Communication Command who were involved in signals intelligence work.

Legion Magazine reported that the Hercules struck the tundra, broke into three pieces and caught fire when a fuel tank shattered. No distress call was heard at Alert, and another aircraft following behind saw the fire.

Veterans Affairs Canada names the five who died as Capt. John Couch, the pilot, Capt. Judy Trépanier, Master Warrant Officer Tom Jardine, Warrant Officer Robert Grimsley and Master Cpl. Roland Pitre. Veterans Affairs says four died almost immediately and that Couch died later of hypothermia. Legion Magazine said Couch’s body was found strapped into his seat in the cockpit.

The survivors sheltered in wreckage as temperatures fell to between minus 20 and minus 30 C with extreme wind chill, according to Veterans Affairs. Legion Magazine reported winds of 50 km/h gusting to 80 and whiteout conditions. Veterans Affairs said Capt. Wilma de Groot, a physician, called out the survivors’ names every hour or two to keep them alert. Legion Magazine spelled her surname “Degrout” and said she had a broken ankle.

The rescue was slow and, by the sources’ accounts, difficult to time precisely. Veterans Affairs said the first overland efforts were turned back by weather and rough terrain, and that a 413 Squadron search-and-rescue Hercules from Greenwood, N.S., reached the site after about eight hours but could not drop technicians because of wind and cloud. Legion Magazine said the first rescue flight arrived at 2:39 a.m. and that search-and-rescue technicians reached the wreck roughly 40 hours after the crash. The Aviation Safety Network says rescuers were delayed about 32 hours. Legion Magazine said the full operation lasted 51 hours and 45 minutes, ending with the last survivor leaving the site by 8:15 p.m. on Nov. 1.

The Aviation Safety Network, citing a Department of National Defence flight safety investigation (report FSIS 70378), lists the causes as a decision to continue a visual approach after the airfield lighting was lost from sight and a failure to hold the briefed altitude. Veterans Affairs and Legion Magazine do not discuss the inquiry’s findings, and this account relies on the Aviation Safety Network’s summary of that report.

A seven-foot slate cairn near the Alert runway, dedicated on June 24, 1993, bears the names of the dead, according to Veterans Affairs. The inscription honours “the personnel who died in the crash of Hercules 130322 on October 30, 1991, while serving their country.”

Alert remains central to Canada’s northern defence planning; see our report on the military’s plans for 47 Arctic sensor stations for Norad.

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