Timmins

The aircraft was operating as Air Creebec flight 140 on a scheduled flight from Moosonee, Ontario, to Timmins, Ontario, with 2 crew members and 7 passengers on board. While on approach to Timmins, the crew selected “landing gear down,” but did not get an indication in the handle that the landing gear was down and locked. A fly-by at the airport provided visual confirmation that the landing gear was not fully extended. The crew followed the Quick Reference Handbook procedures and selected the alternate landing-gear extension system, but they were unable to lower the landing gear manually. An emergency was declared, and the aircraft landed with only the nose gear partially extended. The aircraft came to rest beyond the end of Runway 28. All occupants evacuated the aircraft through the main entrance door. No fire occurred, and there were no injuries to the occupants. Emergency services were on scene for the evacuation. The accident occurred during daylight hours, at 1740 Eastern Daylight Time.

At 2043 eastern daylight time (EDT), Frontier Air Flight 1602, C-GFAW, a Beechcraft C99 Airliner, took off from Timmins, Ontario, on a scheduled domestic flight to Moosonee, Ontario. The aircraft carried a two-pilot crew, two passengers, and approximately 60 pounds of freight and baggage. The flight proceeded, via airways, to Moosonee at 7,000 feet above sea level. At 2121 EDT, the flight was cleared for an approach at Moosonee with a temporary altitude restriction of 5,000 feet. The crew elected to fly the very high frequency omnidirectional range (VOR) runway 24 approach. At 2129 EDT, the crew reported on the 061° radial of the VOR at five nautical miles (nm) outbound. Shortly after intercepting the 061° radial inbound, the crew initiated a descent to the 440-foot minimum descent altitude (MDA). While in the descent, the aircraft broke through the lowest cloud layer at 900 feet asl, approximately 9.2 nm from the VOR. At this point, both pilots had the runway lights in sight, and the captain decided to change to a visual approach and proceed inbound at 700 feet asl. Shortly after advising the co-pilot of his intentions, the captain initiated the before-landing cockpit check and selected the landing gear lever to the DOWN position. Immediately thereafter, the aircraft struck trees and crashed seven miles east-northeast of the Moosonee Airport. One of the pilot was killed while three other occupants were injured.

The twin engine aircraft was dispatched from Timmins to Chapleau on an ambulance flight, carrying two medical staffs and two pilots. A patient should be boarded in Chapleau and transferred to Sault Sainte Marie. Following an uneventful flight at FL120, the crew started a night descent to Chapleau. On a final NDB approach, the aircraft struck the ground and crashed 2,5 km southwest of the airport. The aircraft was destroyed and all four occupants were killed.

On Saturday 4th September '76 at approximately 12:00 hours, the pilot while preparing Otter MIT for flight, called the local company radio operator to request weather information for his VFR flight to Timmins. The operator transmitted the 11:23 terminal forecast for Timmins, the 10:00 observation for Moosonee and the 11:18 special observation for Timmins. The terminal reports for Moosonee and Timmins were much better than forecast and acceptable for VFR flight. At about 12:10 the radio operator at Moosonee received a special weather observation for Timmins which indicated deteriorating weather but did not pass this vital information to the pilot at that time. The Otter departed at 12:30 and shortly after take off the pilot advised the company operator at Moosonee that his estimated time of arrival at the South Porcupine seaplane base was 14:30. A few minutes later the radio operator attempted several times to contact the aircraft, to pass the new weather information,but without success. No other radio transmission was heard from the Otter. Because the flight was operating under VFR rules and because some of his passengers had limited time to make airline connections at Timmins, the pilot elected for the direct route, a distance of 165 nautical miles between the Moosonee and Timmins NDBs. To follow this route, the pilot would have used his ADF radio equipment and / or map reading techniques. Considering the cloud ceilings were at about one thousand feet and some terrain in the area rises to 950 feet, the deteriorating conditions would have induced the pilot to divert from the planned track. Since the accident site was 28 miles west of the direct track, it is probable that he diverted westward toward lower terrain to go around poor weather. Arriving at the Abitibi River, he followed the river southward to the accident site near the Abitibi Canyon Dam. The valley narrows and the terrain rises at this site of the power dam. It is believed that the pilot found the visibility decreasing rapidly in dense upslope fog in this vicinity. At 13:37 hours the aircraft struck the high tension electrical cables near the generating station and crashed to the ground. After impact a fire developed and consumed the aircraft, which had 11,573 hours on the airframe at the time. From the geometry of the wirestrike, it is probably that the pilot saw the wires and commenced a climbing turn to try and get over them, but had insufficient time to avoid the collision. The airplane has been chartered for the Royal Commission on Electric Power Planning for Ontario.
Source: http://www.dhc-3archive.com & Karl E. Hayes.

While approaching Timmins Airport, the crew realized that weather conditions were marginal and decided to return to Winisk. This was not possible as the weather worsened at Winisk as well so the crew returned to Timmins and initiated a second approach despite the visibility was below minima. On final, the aircraft was too low and crashed three km short of runway threshold. Both pilots and two passengers were killed while four others were injured. The aircraft was destroyed.

The seaplane departed Kapuskasing Airport at 2015LT bound for Timmins. Twenty minutes into the flight, the left engine lost power, following few seconds later by the right engine. As the altitude could not be maintained, the crew attempt an emergency landing when the aircraft crash landed in a wooded area located near Timmins. All three occupants were evacuated, the copilot was seriously injured.

Few minutes after takeoff from Orillia, the crew encountered poor weather conditions and was forced to attempt an emergency landing in a field. There were no casualties and the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.