Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 21
Douglas DC-6B · Bombing
From Vancouver International Airport (YVR) to Whitehorse / Erik Nielsen International Airport (YXY)
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
- 52 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 52
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
- Airline
Douglas DC-6B
- Aircraft type
- Douglas DC-6
- 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
- CF-CUQ
- Operator
- Canadian Pacific Air Lines
- Onboard fatalities
- 52
- Route
- From Vancouver International Airport (YVR)To Whitehorse / Erik Nielsen International Airport (YXY)
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 21 was a scheduled domestic flight from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, to Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada, via Prince George, Fort St. John, Fort Nelson and Watson Lake on July 8, 1965. The Douglas DC-6B plane crashed after an in-flight explosion near 100 Mile House, British Columbia, killing all 52 people aboard. An inquest determined that the explosion was the result of a bomb, but the perpetrator and motive remain undetermined.
Incident
While en route from Vancouver to Prince George, the DC-6 Empress of City of Buenos Aires, piloted by captain John Alfred Steele (41), first officer Warner Murray Wells (29), and flight engineer Stanley Edward Clarke (26), crashed after passing Ashcroft, British Columbia. About 15:40, three mayday calls were heard by air traffic control in Vancouver. An explosion had occurred in the left aft lavatory. The tail separated from the fuselage. The aircraft spiralled and crashed into a wooded area. All 46 passengers and 6 crew perished. The crash site is 32 km west of 100 Mile House. Remnants of the DC-6 remain at the crash site near Dog Creek.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 21” (revision 1364269210, 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: Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 21
- Revision
- 1364269210 · 2026-07-15 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q5030419
- 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 "Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 21" (page 18588416, revision 1364269210)
- 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
- flight number in the article title
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- 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.