Uncover - S2 "Bomb On Board" E1: The Crash

Episode Date: November 17, 2018

Uncover: Bomb On Board - Episode 1. A bomb exploded on Canadian Pacific Flight 21 killing all 52 people on board. Chuck was on the ground. Didi's dad was on the plane. Witnesses offer insight into what happened July 8, 1965 - and why no one has ever been held responsible. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/uncover/uncover-season-2-bomb-on-board-transcripts-listen-1.5129876

Canadians care about what's happening in the world and in just 10 minutes, World Report can help you stay on top of it all. Join me, Marcia Young. And me, John Northcott, to get caught up on what was breaking when you went to bed and the stories that still matter in the morning. Our CBC News reporters will tell you about the people trying to make change. The political movements catching fire. And the cultural moments going viral.

Find World Report wherever you get your podcasts. Start your day with us. This is a CBC Podcast. So about how long a walk? You know, I usually don't time it, but I say maybe five or ten. So here, it's a beautiful trail, and there's some strawberries on the ground if you get hungry. You're right, it doesn't take long for sort of the pine smells and the... Can you smell the juniper? Yes, actually, that's the juniper with the berries, right?

Yeah, exactly. Look at the butterfly. Look how beautiful that is. Yeah, there are tons of butterflies on the trail. How many times do you think you've done this hike? I think I've probably been into the crash site about 25 times more or less. Yeah. I have to admit, I mean, I'm starting to sort of feel the anticipation or, you know, the reality of where we'll be in a few moments.

And I've got to tell you, I would not have come out here unless somebody like you had not just guided us here, but kind of made me feel like it's okay to be here. So, I mean, how would you describe it? If it's not a hiking destination, what is it? For me, it is sacred ground. It is akin to a graveyard. a graveyard. 52 people lost their lives here and when I go out here I know where my father was more or less in the back section and it's totally different than going to his gravestone in Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal. That sort of doesn't mean anything when I come back here. I've come out here sometimes by myself and just literally sensed the spirits of the souls lost.

So as we get closer to the crash site, there's sort of bits of metal strewn about. It definitely was a violent crash. Look at this. One of the burnt trees has looks like people's initials in metal. In memory of flight CP21. 52 lives lost.

July 8th, 1965. July 8th, 1965. The day of one of the biggest unsolved mass murders on Canadian soil. This is Uncover. Bomb on board. I'm Ian Hanamansing. And I'm Johanna Wagstaff. Chapter one. Good morning. Here is the CBC National News read by Alec Trebek. July the 8th. Here we go. Thursday. Canadian Pacific Flight 21 was scheduled to take off from Vancouver International Airport at 2.42pm. Final destination, the White Horse.

6.30 he was up. 7 o'clock was breakfast. Parents were squeezing in time for a final meal with the kids. It was a beautiful sunny day. squeezing in time for a final meal with the kids. It was a beautiful sunny day. Since it was my dad's last time we would be having breakfast together, all of us sat down at the table. 805, he was in the office by a bus.

For members of the crew, it was just another day at work. There was a goodbye. The wife of the first officer dropped her husband off at our house, and then the first officer and my dad went on from our house to the airport. 12.15, had lunch. 13.30, they returned to the office. There was the last-minute rush to pack, calling a cab. We were all caught up in our playing, and I think they were late, and they just got into the taxi and went to the airport. And the final goodbye was from a distance.

1630, departed the office. 1730, he was home. I did see some of the people that got on the plane. One lady that was from Norway and two little children. There were hugs in the departure lounge and a final boarding call. Little girl had a knapsack on her back with a doll in it, and the little boy was dressed in an aqua knitted suit. 1745, word of CPA Flight 21. Overdue.

Canadian Pacific Flight 21, flying from Vancouver to Whitehorse with stops along the way. 59 minutes after it took off, an explosion on board. minutes after it took off. An explosion on board. Good evening. A Canadian Pacific airliner has crashed in rugged country in the Caribou district of British Columbia. The latest word from search and rescue headquarters is that there were apparently no survivors. 52 people were killed. Six crew members, 46 passengers. Three staccato cries of mayday and an eyewitness report of a mid-air explosion is about all that is known this morning of the British collapse. We were just in our living room, and I heard on the radio, Canadian Pacific, so I was thinking, oh, what's happened?

There's been an accident at 100 Mile House. Well, of course, I almost collapsed because nobody had told us. Nobody told us that he'd been killed. All I wanted to do was go out the door and just run and run and run. My mother told us that my father had been killed and that he had been killed in the plane crash that we had just seen him off to. I said, oh, I was just wondering about a plane crash. And she said, oh, I just saw it on the TV and everyone was killed. And so I said, my mom was on that plane.

You know, your parents aren't coming home. coming home. This was no accident. This was pure murder. Police quickly concluded it was a deliberate act, not structural failure, not pilot error. It looked like the plane just fell straight from the sky. The whole plane. Police had four suspects, but no one claimed responsibility and no charges have ever been laid. I would like somebody to have to pay for all those wonderful people who lost their lives.

To this day, the case of CP21 remains unsolved. So many lives were impacted by this. I really want to know what happened. Roger. Cleared to maintain 14,000. After more than five decades, what does finding justice even look like? Make a heading towards Houghton Town. What can we find out?

Can we get any closer to solving this mystery? Roger. If the person who set off that bomb died on the plane, it's not just about who did it and why, but given that four suspects were publicly identified, who has been wrongly accused for all these years. The latest word from Search and Rescue Headquarters in Vancouver is that there were apparently no survivors. A rescue plane with two pararescue teams on board

is en route to the crash area, and RCMP are on the scene. Twelve bodies have been located. So when did you get the, sort of the first, the first call that something was happening? About 20 minutes after the aircraft went down. Moments after air traffic control realized Flight 21 was missing, a nearby Forest Service dispatcher saw the billowing smoke. He sent a plane to investigate what he thought was a forest fire.

The pilot confirmed the crash scene just 20 minutes after the Mayday call. He dropped rolls of toilet paper to mark the bodies he could see from the air. Right after that, calls went out to the nearest town, Hunter Mile House. I knew before I even left out there that we knew it had been blown up. I had enough experience around airplanes

and repairing them and this. Chuck Shaw McLaren was a volunteer ambulance driver. He was just 37 years old back in 1965. We found the tail section on the back end. When an airplane usually explodes in the air, it's pressure. So it comes from the outside. This was split wide open and it was very jagged. So it was very obvious.

We knew that when we found the tail section, that did it. That told us that it was blown. It was murder. This was not an accident. This was pure murder. Chuck had been to a lot of accident scenes, and this time he knew right away this was foul play. And investigators came to the same conclusion,

that someone had deliberately set off a bomb on CP-21. I'm 91 today, so maybe it's time I did a little talking about it. Yeah. It's funny, but I haven't talked about it. Chuck has kept these stories, to himself for 53 years. The first impression was, well, it was dark. And I wish it had stayed dark. We've heard people describe that night as being very stormy.

Do you remember the weather? Yes, and it was a very, very fortunate thing. That night we had a terrific rainstorm. Didn't realize how nice it was and how good it was. Of course, it was dampening down the fire space. It cleaned a big part of the area of, you know, people were cleaned off. And that was fortunate, believe me.

We had about six teams for the first two days, going out steady with a stretcher, bringing the people in that had blown out of the aircraft. They were spread over a mile circle into brush, some into swamps. We had to go arm in arm through the brush because bodies were coming down. There was no sign. You had to walk on into a lot of it So you actually I'm carrying the stretchers. Oh, yeah. Yeah three days

Searching You have to forget it from the moment you start. That's what you're trying to do. Not wanting to feel it is the big thing. Just sick. Yeah, yeah. Do you want a glass of water? We could take like a five-minute break.

Yeah, I would. I'm sorry if I do this. No, it means a lot that you're sharing this with us. I know that it's not easy to go back there. Yeah, it's support. I'm sorry. No, I'm right here. Chuck takes my hand. Yeah.

I'm talking more to you than I have to anybody. Even my son is listening to me and never heard me talk about it. Right, David? Chuck's son David also remembers the time of the crash. It's all this, and then there's more of it back here. I see there's some things underlined there. He's saved newspaper clippings from that week that he's showing our producer, Polly. The reporter said, I was the first reporter on the scene of the disaster on Thursday evening,

14 hours before the second reporter arrived. The few dozen volunteers were still literally shocked and numbed by their experience, and I was privileged to witness and display a highest degree of citizenship. David's reading from the front page of the local paper. It's dated July 14th, 1965. Ken Phillips was the first reporter at the scene. The brain rejects the message transmitted by the eyes and unnatural bravado strives to compensate for what is just plain fear. for what is just plain fear. It repelled, yet it attracted.

There was an odor which nobody mentioned, which is similar to that of burning hair. A quiet, unassuming fellow we all know brought in a headless corpse, leaned against a tree fighting nausea, and yet returned to continue the probe. nausea and yet returned to continue the probe. I think the reason it was such a traumatic thing for a lot of the local people because they got involved in it. Today is Chuck's 91st birthday.

He still wears his silver hair slicked straight back, the same way he did in the 1960s. Chuck joined the Air Force toward the end of the Second World War, settled in Hundred Mile House in the 1950s, and was one of the town's first council members. He cares about this place. Next day they were bringing us out sandwiches and food, and it was Hundredundertmaat and it made Hundertmaat. It made us better and I hate to say that on the on what

happened and what I had to do But we did it. So by the end of the three days, you knew that you'd found everyone? Yes. Yep. I mean, in a way, was it, was there sort of relief that you had at least... Yeah, well, that was why you knew you were there to do it, hoping that somebody, you might find somebody alive. Did realizing that it was malicious sort of, was that a moment?

Yeah, it was a couple of three days. The police didn't say too much about it. I know it's still under investigation, their people, but they're getting as old as I am there. If they were older than me when it happened, then they're probably gone. Do you hope that they find the answer? I think for all the families

of the people that were lost in that aircraft it would be nice to have an end. It would be nice to have an end. It would be nice to have an end. Thanks for breaking me open. Chuck has lived with the memories of the crash and the certainty this was murder for more than half of his life. To understand what happened that night, we have to go to that small town near the crash site, 100 Mile House, British Columbia.

In 2017, it felt like drugs were everywhere in the news. So I started a podcast called On Drugs. We covered a lot of ground over two seasons, but there are still so many more stories to tell. I'm Jeff Turner, and I'm back with season three of On Drugs. And this time, it's going to get personal. I don't know who Sober Jeff is. I don't even know if I like that guy. On Drugs is available now wherever you get your podcasts. It's quite the on-ramp. Yeah.

So how much longer before we get there? Checking Google Maps, we are about an hour and 40 minutes. So Ian and I worked together for years. It turns out one of the things we share an interest in is aviation. For me, part of the fascination comes from being a pilot. I've been flying small planes since I was a teenager. And so for five years, we were on a CBC News Network show from Vancouver. And think, Joe, of all the big aviation stories that happened on our watch.

The Friday night that MH370 disappeared, the German wings crash in Europe turned out to be pilot suicide. And then some stories that maybe people might not remember so vividly, the jetliner that crashed in Colombia that had the soccer team aboard. But when you came to me with this story, so unlike anything we had done together when it comes to breaking aviation news, I knew we had to tell this one. And so here we are, driving 100 mile. I'm already starting to think about what it might have been like for, you know, the investigators who had to drive into 100 mile house that first night. And this is a really rugged part of the West, you know, and I think that when you look at the

list of passengers and you see what they, you know, they reflect a period in time, but they also reflect the region, right? People coming into Vancouver to go to hospital and then heading back. A lot of people in the mining business, right? Because mining is so big, especially it was big then in British Columbia. And just people kind of seeking adventure. People like Dee Dee Henderson, whose father was on that plane. All right, here we go. Dee Dee said she was going to put red flowers in front of her house so we could find it,

and this is it. It's a beautiful little house. Country style, timbers out front. Hello. Hello, how are you? Awesome. I feel like I already know you. It's lovely, and you're not too far out of town.

No, but you wouldn't know it. I know. I want to hear the coyotes at night. Dee Dee talks with her hands. She jokes that she's dressed down for her interview, but even with the loose flannel and cuffed jeans, she's wearing beautiful leather shoes and tons of cool silver jewelry. They're from the women's boutique she runs in town. How many people want tea? I do have herb tea if anyone doesn't want black tea.

We're sitting in the main room of Dee Dee's home. It's bright and open with vaulted wood ceilings. So depending on how strong you like your tea, you get to pull your tea bag. When you like. Alright. Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. You were five years old when the crash happened?

Yeah, five. Do you remember anything from then? I do. I have some memories of my dad. He was larger than life. He was full of energy, and he played the banjo. We had a big boat. He was quite a water skier, too. And I know we'd go visit friends on the lake

and come home in the dark all bundled up in blankets and he'd make the boat turn so we'd get all scared and giggle and shriek and, you know, childhood memories of a father. I remember the day we were told he died and not really comprehending what that meant at that age. So that was something that stays with you. Yeah, I mean, five.

I'm just trying to think back to memories I had when I was five. Tell me more about what you remember from then. My father's name was Wallace Proximo, and he was a doctor of geology, an exploration geologist and we all lived in Montreal at the time of the crash. And my dad traveled a lot with his work so I remember one morning my baby sister Gail and I shared a bedroom and I heard some people coming up the stairs and I could tell by the light it was really early and I had no idea why. And my mom and my older sister came into the bedroom and sat down on the end of the bed

and mom just said, you know, Dee Dee, Gail, your father's dead. And we just, we were so young. Gail's even younger than I am. She was four, so we really had no idea what that meant. Our lives had changed forever. It's remarkable to me that a human being could decide to blow up a plane full of strangers, including themselves,

for whatever some of the reasons might have been. Insurance might have been revenge, might have been suicide. You know, not nice to think about that person. The leading theory, the one investigators zeroed in on almost right away, and that Dee Dee's family believes, was that the bomber was on the plane. Someone willing to kill their fellow passengers as well as themselves. 53 years on, are you angry at all? Are there moments when you get angry?

Yes, I have definitely had moments where I've been angry. And, you know, you have to release it. You don't want to carry that around your whole life clearly someone someone perpetuated a crime and that affected not only me and my family but I've had the opportunity to meet a lot of the other families and to hear their stories and the magnitude of you know what initially was just my experience of loss and grief is so huge, the ripple effect, and so many lives were impacted by this. Alright, why don't you show me what you have?

Okay. A lot of Dee Dee's memories of her dad are connected to a few precious things that she pulls out of a briefcase. This is the briefcase. This is the briefcase. This is my dad's briefcase. Wow. Didi takes the briefcase out from the guest room closet.

It's an old one, scuffed up, light brown leather, and it's fraying at the corners and the handle. What's unclear to me, and I was asking my sisters, is whether or not it was the one he had on his trip. You know, it's sort of family myth it was. So this was actually on the plane? On the plane. It was probably taken from the tail section, which when the explosion happened, the tail

section was blown off and basically just came straight down into the forest and didn't crash and burn. So that's my guess on that one. And then this is the cup and the cutlery I mentioned. This is a teacup and cutlery from the plane. Yeah, and they have sep have CPR on them. So intact. Yeah. Yeah. This is the wallet? He had on him. Yeah. Yeah. So, and there's

a picture of me and my sisters in it and my mom and a bunch of cards and different things. So, but there was there was a fire on the plane. He was seated near the back. And when the explosion occurred, he would have been sucked out. And I don't know how many people were found in the more distant area, but he was one of them. So he was relatively intact intact and his personal belongings were

can i touch that sure so and this is did you put these pictures in later or these are the pictures that were these were in there um there's his driver's licenses in there some bank cards some different things and you and your two sisters. Yeah. I don't even know how I feel holding on to this. Like, it just seems so poignant. Yeah, to know that that was on my dad's person when he, yeah, when he passed away and we have it.

You know, I hope my dad thought of us when he died and, you know, clearly he carried us in his wallet and in his heart. And as you got a little bit older, not when you were 18, but before then, did you try to do anything to find out more, either about your dad or about how he died? We were told nothing. And we wanted to know. I was desperately curious. Anything was important to know.

Didi is the only person in Hundred Mile House who lost someone on that plane. But she ended up here almost by accident. Didi grew up in Montreal and didn't make her way out to the BC interior until she was in her 20s. So I called my mom and I said, oh mom, I'm in BC in the middle of nowhere in a small town called 100 Mile House, you'll never have heard of it. And it was like dead quiet on the end of the phone and I'm like, you've heard of it? And she just dead quiet on the end of the phone and

I'm like you've heard of it and she just said Dee Dee that's where your father died and then I ended up staying here around 993 whatever yes great Dee Dee it was so nice to meet you

thank you thank you for being so genuine and I'm glad I can't talk anymore yeah well I've made my days in therapy

over here you know Dee Dee was thrust in this in the worst possible way as a five-year-old whose father was taken from her. But thank goodness she is who she is, right? She doesn't carry, I don't think, she's certainly not bitter.

And I don't feel like she wears this like a terrible burden. But she is tireless and creative and interesting. And, you know, we're benefiting from so we're we're lucky to have her she as you said has become the sounding board for everyone else involved in this more practical shoes tomorrow yes So we've just turned off the main highway and we're heading to speak to Ken, whose father was the senior Transport Canada investigator. Dee Dee told us we should talk to Ken Leland. He lives about a half hour down the highway from Hundred Mile. Ken's dad, Cy, was a senior crash investigator with the Department of Transport back in 1965. So your dad was a diary keeper? He was all of his working life. July the 8th, Thursday, cloudy, 6 3030, he was up.

7 o'clock with breakfast. And how did you end up finally getting possession of them? When Dad passed away in 2000. And then Mom passed away in 2002 when we were sorting things out in the house. 12.15, departed Langley, arrived Vancouver. Had lunch. 13.30, they returned to the house. 12.15 departed Langley arrived Vancouver had lunch. 13.30 they returned to the office. 14.30 Don and Tom to Delta Air Park.

17.45 word of CPA flight 21 overdue. 17.50 phoned Dick Bolduc and a number of his other people to let them know that the aircraft was missing. 1810, word from center that the crash was confirmed. That's a pretty detailed diary your dad keeps. It's like that all the way through. It's really well kept. I mean, my notebooks from last week look worse off than this. I mean, it's beautiful green colour and, you know, the pages are all pristine and the pen isn't faded.

I mean, he took care of his stuff, didn't he? He did. He did. And since he passed away... Cy Leyland was meticulous. He noted the weather on the top of every page of his diary. His job was to figure out what caused the crash. You said you were 16 when the crash happened, right? And you remember when your dad got the call? Oh, yeah.

I think we were all sitting around the table in the kitchen in the house in North Van, and the phone rang, which was on the wall in the kitchen. And if I remember rightly, I think my brother answered the phone, and it was Vancouver Air Traffic Control Centre, and that was usually the first contact for Dad with word of an accident or an aircraft missing, and they confirmed that 21 was down. And what was his demeanour?

My dad was... He was a very meticulous person. Didn't display emotion readily. But I could tell when he got off the phone, he was pretty shaken up. 1825, he departed home. 2005, departed Vancouver via special flight, 2245 arrived 100 mile. 330 up, 410 departed 100 mile, 515 they arrived at the accident scene, assisted in the location removal of bodies and they conferred with the RCMP.

Saturday the 10th, some rain, some sun. At 6 o'clock they were up, 7 o'clock departed 100 mile and then 8.15 they arrived at the scene. By 11.30 all bodies reported to be recovered. As Ken reads his dad's diary, we get our first glimpse into what investigators were thinking in the days immediately following the crash. And already some key details jump out. At 1500, indications of overpressure in the left lavatory, pieces sent to the lab. So this is two days following the accident

where there was obviously evidence that something untoward had gone on. 22.30, had a meeting with RCMP inspector, who I think was the chief RCMP officer during the crash. Sunday the 11th, 9.30 arrived at the scene, continued location and plot of the wreckage. Indications of explosion, but no confirmation from the lab. It's now been a week since the crash.

Investigators are still struggling to piece together what happened. Actually, the next significant event, I think, was on July the 15th, when they made the decision to release the wreckage to CP. And arrangements were made for a truck to transport a good portion of the wreckage back to Vancouver. The next, I think the next significant thing, I believe, was the 22nd. At three in the afternoon, word from the RCMP lab of traces of nitrate found in the wreckage that were sent in. So that was the first confirmation of an explosive being used.

It's not just confirmation that an explosive was used. The reason this clue is so important is it's an indication of what was in that bomb. And so all those crashes that he covered over all those years, where do you think CP-21 fit into his career? I think it was probably the most significant in terms of number of lives lost in his career. It was probably the biggest single accident that he investigated. the biggest single accident that he investigated. So his job would not be to figure out who the culprit was,

but what the cause was. But he had pretty close contact with the RCMP, did he? Oh, yeah. Yeah, definitely. There was an inspector that was, I think, the chief RCMP coordinator on the crash site. And Dad was dealing with him virtually every day. And in the subsequent weeks, they kept in contact as well. Even as a teenager, Ken was so interested in his dad's work.

Now he wants to share something his father told him about the crash. Something he has never publicly spoken about. They knew who was responsible. When did you first hear from your dad that he and the RCMP were pretty sure who did it? The night before the reunion. Uncover, Bomb On Board is hosted by me, Ian Hannah-Mansing, and Johanna Wagstaff. It's produced by Mika Anderson and Polly Legere, and written by Mika, Polly, Johanna Wagstaff. It's produced by Mika Anderson and Polly Legere and written by Mika, Polly, Johanna and me. Our associate producer is Alina Ghosh. Tiffany Foxcroft is our producer with The National. Mixing and sound design by Mika Anderson, Polly Legere and Mitchell Stewart.

Sarah Claydon is our digital producer. The senior producer is Tanya Springer, and our executive producer is Arif Noorani. Subscribe to the series wherever you get your podcasts. We're at cbc.ca slash uncover. If you'd like to discuss this story and get the latest updates, join our online communities, the Uncover Facebook group, or follow us on Twitter at Uncover CBC.