Air crashes are so rare that few families have undergone the heartbreak of experiencing the loss of their dear ones to an aeronautical incident.
By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on January 13, 2020.
OTTAWA—It will likely be months before we know the true story behind the crash of Ukraine flight 752. Theories abound but given the suspension of diplomatic relations between Iran and Canada, grieving families will be dependent on third-party information as to the nature of the catastrophe. Last Thursday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there was evidence indicating the plane was shot down by an Iranian missile, adding that it might have been an unintentional act.
Families wiped out, newlyweds gone, communities devastated. The long-term effects of this disaster will be felt by many on a very personal level.
Air crashes are so rare that few families have undergone the heartbreak of experiencing the loss of their dear ones to an aeronautical incident.
I happen to have been in one of those families.
My grandmother and her sister were killed back in 1957 in a crash in Issoudun, Que., where 74 Canadians lost their lives. Sixty-two years later, it is still ranking as the seventh-worst plane crash on Canadian soil.
Three other modern-day disasters had similar tragic trajectories. Two hundred twenty-nine people died in a Swissair crash off Nova Scotia. Air India lost 329 people including an unprecedented 268 Canadians in a crash in Ireland and in 1985, an American military charter crash in Gander, Newfoundland killed 256 people.
In the case of Swissair, the accident was ultimately attributed to a mechanical misfire, faulty wires causing the plane’s insulation to ignite.
The Air India crash was the single most egregious aviation terrorist act until the World Trade Centre attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Separatist Sikhs planted a bomb on the plane. Only one man, Inderjit Singh Reyat, was ever convicted in the bombing and he was released from prison four years ago.
The judicial enquiries that resulted from the attack ultimately cost more than $130-million and pointed the finger at various police forces for botching the potential for other convictions.
In the Gander case, the crash was attributed to icy wings, but a minority report on the aeronautical investigation attributed the catastrophe to a bomb, leaving grieving families in limbo as to the burning question, “Why?”
In my grandmother’s case, there was never any real investigation by anyone. Times were different then so when her Maritime Central Airways flight went down, there were no major investigations.
The crash was attributed to bad weather, as the plane flew into a cloud during a storm while en route from London, England to Toronto.
It was rumoured that the plane ran out of gas, and that the pilot was undergoing psychiatric treatment for depression which had not been reported to his company.
The family never got closure, and even the insurance policy my grandmother purchased for the trip was not honoured, because it covered a flight time that had been exceeded when the plane left London several hours behind schedule.
More than 20 members of our family had gathered to greet my grandmother and her sister on their return from a trip to their hometown in Surrey.
We had a picnic planned to celebrate the moment. Saturday was gramma time and we had missed her so much during her two months away. Alice Guthro had come to Canada as a war bride in 1918 and this two-month trip had been her first visit home in 49 years. She was travelling with her sister and best friend.
To this day, I remember the howl of collective grief when we were all called into a room at the Toronto airport and it was announced coldly, that her flight had gone down and there were no survivors. I was only five and did not really understand why everyone was crying, so my older sister put her arm around me and said, “Gramma’s dead.”
There are dozens of families putting their arms around loved ones today and trying to make sense out of this senseless tragedy.
Answers won’t come immediately. In our case, they never came. Recognition may come. The crash never even warranted a monument of recognition until as minister, I ordered a plaque erected in the Issoudun church graveyard decades later.
At the time, my department warned me that I could be accused of conflict of interest for erecting a plaque commemorating a tragedy involving my own family. I agreed to take the risk. For years, we had gone to visit my grandmother’s gravesite in an overgrown forest where a local farmer had erected a simple wooden cross.
At the ceremony unveiling the plaque, dozens of relatives from across the country finally got the closure they deserved.
Without answers, the terrible loss suffered by so many families last week will never heal.
Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.
