Panarctic Oils Flight 416

Panarctic Oils Flight 416 was a flight that crashed in the Arctic, killing 32 of the 34 people on board on 30 October 1974. The Lockheed L-188 Electra passenger plane took off from Edmonton Airport toward Rea Point Airfield on Melville Island in the Canadian Arctic. As the plane was approaching the airfield, it went down short of the runway, hitting the icy surface of the Byam Channel and then falling through the ice. All 30 passengers and two of the four crew members were killed in the accident.

Accident

Looking out of the cockpit window, the flight engineer thought he could see the icy sea. The captain, on the other hand, believed that the aircraft was above a layer of clouds, so he reduced the thrust and pushed the control horn forward, causing significant g-forces to act on the plane. The rate of descent increased rapidly to 1700 ft to 2000 ft per minute. When the aircraft was at an altitude of 200 ft and 2 mi from the runway, the first officer shouted to the captain piloting the aircraft that the rate of descent was too high, to which the pilot did not respond. At an altitude of 50 ft, the first officer and the flight engineer both called out to the captain again, but again there was no response. The first officer stretched out his hand to the thrust levers on the right side, where the flight engineer's hand was already located. The plane hit the ice. On impact, the cockpit section tore off the fuselage and slid, along with the cargo, 900 ft over the ice. The fuselage of the plane sank into the hole created by the impact in the ice surface. After the cockpit section came to a stop on the ice, the flight engineer unfastened his harness. When he straightened up, he saw that the captain and the first officer were still in their seats. Although he was injured, the first officer managed to unfasten his seat belt. The flight engineer managed to pull him onto the ice. Shortly afterwards the ice collapsed around the cockpit section, which then plunged into the water and sank.