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On 31 July 1950, seven Royal Canadian Air Force (405 [Maritime Reconnaissance] Squadron) crew members and two civilian passengers aboard an RCAF Lancaster aircraft died in a crash while making a low-level parachute airdrop of supplies to the newly-established weather station in Alert, Northwest Territories, Canada. The parachute became entangled in the plane's tail and this caused the crash. The nine men were laid to their final rest near the western side of the Alert runway and a Memorial Cairn was erected next to their graves to honour them.
One of the civilians who...
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On 31 July 1950, seven Royal Canadian Air Force (405 [Maritime Reconnaissance] Squadron) crew members and two civilian passengers aboard an RCAF Lancaster aircraft died in a crash while making a low-level parachute airdrop of supplies to the newly-established weather station in Alert, Northwest Territories, Canada. The parachute became entangled in the plane's tail and this caused the crash. The nine men were laid to their final rest near the western side of the Alert runway and a Memorial Cairn was erected next to their graves to honour them.
One of the civilians who died in this tragic crash was Colonel (Ret'd) Charles Hubbard, who was Chief of Arctic Section for the United States Weather Bureau. Col. (Ret'd) Hubbard was one of the original planners and supporters of the setting up the Arctic weather stations.
Alert, a Canadian Military base, is in the cold high Arctic on the north end of Ellesmere Island in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada. Ellesmere Island is part of the Actic archipegalo. The most northern and most remote permanently inhabited place and permanent airport in the world, Alert is 830 kilometres (520 miles) south of the North Pole. Located on rugged terrain, surrounded by valleys and hills, it takes its name from the British ship, HMS ‘Alert', which wintered 10 km (6.2 miles) east of the present station, off what is now Cape Sheridan, in 1875–1876. The ship's captain, Sir George Nares, and his crew were the first people to reach the northern end of Ellesmere Island.
The Alert weather station was first established by the Canadian government in 1950, as a weather station of the Joint Arctic Weather Station (JAWS) system, and it was operated by the RCAF --the initial landing by Canadian and US air forces took place on 9 April 1950 from Thule, Greenland.
Alert also has many temporary inhabitants as it hosts a military signals intelligence radio receiving facility at Canadian Forces Station Alert (CFS Alert), as well as a combined facility for an Environment Canada weather station, and an international Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) atmosphere monitoring laboratory (measurement of a greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, was started at Alert in 1975 as part of the United Nations World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) network of air pollution monitoring stations). The airport at Alert is a vital link for this small community of scientists and military personel to the rest of the world. |
