Convent Crash
Royal Canadian Air Force Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck · Aircraft crashed into building, cause undetermined
From RCAF Station Uplands to RCAF Station Uplands
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 15 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 13
- Occupants
- 2
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Military
Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck
- Aircraft type
- Avro CF-100
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- Unknown
- Operator
- Royal Canadian Air Force
- Onboard fatalities
- 2
- Route
- From RCAF Station UplandsTo RCAF Station Uplands
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The Convent Crash, also known as the Orléans air disaster and Villa St. Louis disaster, occurred on May 15, 1956, after a CF-100 fighter jet crashed into Villa St. Louis, a convent in the community of Orleans, Ontario, Canada, a suburb of Ottawa. The two pilots were killed in the crash, along with 13 people in the building: 11 members of the Grey Nuns, a civilian servant, and the chaplain, a retired naval padre.
Events
At 10:37 p.m. May 15, 1956, two CF-100s took off from their base at RCAF Station Uplands (located south of Ottawa) on an exercise to practice interception techniques in identifying an unknown aircraft heading towards Montreal. The plane was identified as a RCAF North Star flying from Resolute Bay to Dorval Airport. The two planes climbed to 33000 ft and burn off excess fuel before returning to base.
One of the aircraft returned to base, but the other remained airborne longer to burn off more excess fuel. The plane descended at a speed of nearly 680 mph and crashed into the Villa St. Louis. The cause has never been officially determined, but it is thought that an oxygen failure caused the crew to pass out.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Convent Crash” (revision 1364363624, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: Convent Crash
- Article
- Convent Crash
- Revision
- 1364363624 · 2026-07-16 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q5166154
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Convent Crash" (page 13969745, revision 1364363624)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- operator named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: total_fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: ground fatalities
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.