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The position of the wreckage indicated the aircraft,
an Airspeed Oxford, was flying in a westerly
direction, apparently heading back to North
Battleford, and had struck telephone wires while in a
shallow 20-degree dive, then crashed into a hill.
Comments the Canadian Society of Forensic Science
web site: "This was a great loss to the Force and
Laboratory Services. Surgeon Powers had been a
prime mover and organizer behind the first crime
detection laboratory and is considered its founding
This Month in Saskatchewan Aviation History father."
Reference: Web site of the Canadian Society of
1918, October - A committee of officers from the new Foreign Science at;
Royal Canadian Naval Air Service arrived in Regina to http://www.csfs.ca/history/rcmphist.htm/P
interview recruit for the service, created the previous
month to operate air stations and to fly submarine- 1957, October - Canadian Pacific Airlines, having
hunting seaplanes from Canada's east coast. But with handed over its money-losing Edmonton-Regina
the Armistice on Nov. 11, all recruiting stopped and an route to Pacific Western Airlines under a package of
order-in-council to disband the service was issued on route and service rationalizations, applied to return
Dec. 5, 1918. (See "Canadian Military Aviation Efforts to Saskatchewan’s two largest cities via a package of
Between 1909 and 1920", by James Pickett, Proceedings new transcontinental services using DC-6Bs.
of the 3rd Annual Air Force Historical Conference, Although other routes were granted, these
RMC/CMR Kingston, 1997, Edited by the Office of Air Saskatchewan ones were not. (See page Wing
Force Heritage & History. Walkers, Pages 210-217 and Wings Over The West,
1921, Oct. 7 - A man identified as L. Reece was killed Page 137-138)
while attempting to change from one plane to another 1962, Oct. 1 - Saskatoon’s 1 AFS moved to RCAF
in flight over Regina. Reece was using a rope ladder to
Station Rivers, Man. See “Best In The West”
climb from one Canuck (a Canadian-built Curtiss Jenny
historical addendum
flown by pioneering local aviator Roland Groome to
another (flown by a man from Yorkton named Wallace).
1981, Oct. - Norcanair’s owners, seeking to retire,
1939 - September-October. When war broke out, 120 announced agreement to sell the firm’s scheduled
(Auxiliary) Squadron at Regina was mobilized, half its route licences and F-27 aircraft to the Saskatchewan
personnel going to the west coast, where the unit went government. A joint press conference was held in
onto anti-submarine and patrol work, while the other the Legislative Building to indicate that the new firm,
half went east, dispersing to other units. to be called SaskAir, would be run as a north-south
1943, Oct. 19 - RCMP Superintendent Maurice Powers, a commuter line, using one and possibly two Boeing
737s. Existing Norcanair personnel were to be
medical doctor who headed the RCMP’s pioneering
crime detection laboratory in Regina, was killed in the utilized, with Air Canada supplying consulting
crash of an aircraft near North Battleford, along with Cpl. services. The government of NDP Premier Allan
Blakeney fell in the next spring’s election, and
B.J. Ford-Smith and their pilot, A.A. Green. They were
Norcanair briefly sat in a kind of legal limbo until
flying from North Battleford to Saskatoon late that
evening in poor weather. After they and their aircraft 1983 when Albert Ethier agreed in to buy Norcanair
and merge it with his charter firm, Hi-Line Airways.
failed to arrive at Saskatoon, a search was organized and
the wreckage was found at mid-morning the next day 4 Norcanair later acquired F-28 equipment and sought
1/2 miles north of the Red Pheasant Indian Reserve. Two to become a feeder to CPAir until the latter itself
was merged with Pacific Western Airlines to create
reserve residents told searchers they had heard an
aircraft overhead during the night. Canadian Airlines International Ltd.
