REAL LIFE
A CRASH IN THE ARCTIC By Adam Steenburg
IT WAS 9:40 A.M. ON AUGUST 20, 2011 WHEN CANADIAN CARRIER FIRST AIR FLIGHT 6560 LEFT THE ARCTIC CITY OF YELLOWKNIFE, HEADED FOR RESOLUTE BAY, A HAMLET SOME 970 MILES NORTH. ON BOARD WERE 11 PASSENGERS, FOUR CREW MEMBERS AND FREIGHT. IT WAS AN UNEVENTFUL FLIGHT UNTIL THE BOEING 737-200 BEGAN ITS DESCENT INTO RESOLUTE BAY.
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Disaster struck. As the plane descended, something went terribly wrong and the aircraft slammed into a hill blanketed in clouds.
military exercise to test their capabilities to respond to a catastrophic event. One of those rescuers recalled that day for CRACKYL readers.
When Flight 6560 collided with the hillside, about a half-mile from the runway, it broke into three main sections. An intense post-crash fire consumed most of the center section. Both pilots, two flight attendants and eight of the 11 passengers were killed on impact.
“It was during a deployment to the Arctic – Resolute Bay in Nunavut Territory. We were there on an exercise as part of OpNanook. The exercise consisted of different agencies including the Canadian coast guard, air force, army, navy, Parks Canada, local governments and I believe even the Danish navy was involved.
“The Resolute Bay area is, by definition, an arctic desert landscape: very rocky, mountainous, and pretty dry during the summer months. We were there in August so we could take advantage of the 24hour daylight – in the winter months, the landscape changes completely and it would have been too dark to operate safely. Although the 24 hour daylight took its toll on some of the guys’ mental health, we carried on.
The purpose of the deployment was to test our capabilities to respond to a
"There are civilian scientists who study northern issues such as climate change and
In an astonishing coincidence, Canadian Forces members were temporarily stationed at Resolute as part of the 2011 Operation Nanook
catastrophic event – in this case, it was an air disaster.
