Saturday, May 12, 2012

This day in history: May 12, 1957 - By Vancouver Sun

Mountaineer Elfrida Pigou in a 1957 photo.

Wreckage found on St. Slesse of TCA 810 airplane crash. 
Photograph by: HANDOUT, VANCOUVER SUN


Canadian mountaineer Elfrida Pigou made a grisly discovery while leading a group of climbers up Mount Slesse: the wreckage of TCA Flight 810, B.C.’s worst air crash.

The plane crashed on the mountain’s upper slopes, near Chilliwack, on Dec. 9, 1956, killing all 62 people on board. Among the dead were five pro football players who had been in Vancouver for the Canadian Football League’s East vs. West all-star game at the new Empire Stadium: Winnipeg Blue Bomber Calvin Jack Jones and Saskatchewan Roughriders Melvin Howard Becket, Mario Joseph DeMarco, Gordon Henry Sturtridge and Raymond Nicholas Syrnyk.

Pigou insisted on carrying a large piece of the wreckage back down the mountain. It was examined by transport officials in Vancouver and immediately identified as part of Flight 810.

The startling discovery made headlines for days. Reporters and photographers rushed up the Fraser Valley to Chilliwack. Vancouver Sun reporter and aviation specialist Ron Thornber flew over Slesse in a small plane. He wrote: “I flew where death wears a snaggle-tooth grimace high atop Mount Slesse almost within sight of the broad and peaceful farmlands of the upper Fraser Valley.”

Pigou would die just three years later, in July 1960, when she and three other climbers were caught in an avalanche during an ascent of Mount Waddington.


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