Air Canada Vickers Viscount accident near Sept-Îles
Vickers 757 Viscount · The Air Canada Vickers Viscount accident at Sept-Îles occurred on 7 April 1969
From Sept-Îles Airport, Québec, Canada to Montreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL)
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
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 20
- 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
Vickers 757 Viscount
- Aircraft type
- Vickers 757
- 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-THK
- Operator
- Air Canada
- Onboard fatalities
- 1
- Route
- From Sept-Îles Airport, Québec, CanadaTo Montreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL)
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: Sept-Îles Airport, the airport the Wikipedia article names as the site. Where on or near it is not known.
From the Wikipedia article
The Air Canada Vickers Viscount accident at Sept-Îles occurred on 7 April 1969. On that day, shortly after an Air Canada Vickers 757 Viscount (CF-THK) took off from Sept-Îles Airport, a fire broke out in the landing gear bay, whereupon the pilots had to turn back and make an emergency landing. During the evacuation, one female passenger was killed.
Accident sequence
Shortly after takeoff from Sept-Îles Airport, during the initial climb, the crew received a fire warning for engine No. 2 (left inboard). The fire had originally started in the left main landing gear bay, but the pilots were not aware of this at the time. The crew contacted air traffic control and received clearance for an emergency landing. After touchdown the crew initiated emergency braking. The pilots found that engine No. 1 could not be shut down. In addition, because of the fire, the brakes of the left main landing gear failed. The aircraft could not be stopped and circled to the right, but because of the fire it urgently had to be evacuated. The occupants jumped from the aircraft through the emergency exits. One woman fell as she jumped, was run over by the aircraft and killed. She remained the only fatality of the incident.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The suspected cause of the accident was overheating of the starter selector relay while starting engines No. 1 and 2. The relay was thought to have ignited a wiring harness located near it, resulting in a steadily spreading fire. Because of the extensive fire damage, however, no physical evidence for this scenario could be found.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall einer Vickers Viscount der Air Canada bei Sept-Îles” (revision 258812824, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Flugunfall einer Vickers Viscount der Air Canada bei Sept-Îles
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 258812824 · 2025-08-12 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q93990591
- 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
- de Wikipedia article "Flugunfall einer Vickers Viscount der Air Canada bei Sept-Îles" (page 11286071, revision 258812824), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- airport the Wikipedia infobox site names (OurAirports, exact name)
- 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 is an airline according to Wikidata
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the German Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.