RCAF Centralia Cold War crashes

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As a NATO country sandwiched between the U.S. and U.S.S.R., Canada never had the option of neutrality during the Cold War.

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The threat of nuclear war meant that humankind was just minutes away from annihilation.

Huron County’s Cold War contributions were two air stations. RCAF Station Clinton was Canada’s radar school, while student pilots trained at CAF Station Centralia. Flight training at Centralia was always rated “the finest” anywhere, but it could also be dangerous work as several airmen were killed in training mishaps.

RCAF Station Centralia was reactivated as an Instrument Flight Training School in 1947. The school provided rudimentary flight training to student pilots on small Harvard training aircraft.

In June 1950, flight cadet N. R. Henderson, 21, was in his second summer with the university air-training plane. Henderson’s instructor was Flying Officer W. J. Wilson of Grand Bend, a Second World War fighter pilot, and experienced trainer, when the Harvard’s engine caught fire at low altitude.

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Sitting in the seat right behind the burning engine, Henderson was forced to jump from the aircraft. His parachute opened just as his body struck the ground, killing Henderson instantly. Wilson, though, remained with the aircraft and was able to make an emergency landing at Centralia.

It was the first fatal incident at the station since the base had reopened.

Not all crashes were fatal. In May 1951, a two-engined Beechcraft trainer was practising single-engine flying after takeoff with instructor Flight Lieut. A. A. Harris and two 21-year-old Western Canadian flight cadets, Harry Blair of Alberta and Leonard Vaughn of Saskatchewan.

According to eyewitness “Mrs. Haist,” who was hanging out her laundry, the aircraft stalled just after takeoff with one wing tip hitting the ground. The aircraft spun and landed across a ditch on the Haist farm less than a mile from the control tower.

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Before rescue vehicles could attend the scene, 25-year-old Dutch army veteran Wilhelm Koele, who had been in Canada just 11 months, rushed into action. He had been plowing a nearby field when he saw the plane “flying low over the ground” and then “burst into flames.”

Koele saw that Harris had been thrown clear. He then pulled “the second fellow out” and went back to the burning aircraft to pull the third man out of the twisted wreckage. After five minutes of heroic rescue work, Koele freed the airman from the aircraft before it blew up.

The three casualties of the plane wreck were transported by ambulance to Westminster Hospital in London. Harris was an experienced bomber command pilot who had earned the Distinguished Flying Cross during the Second World war. Blair and Vaughn recovered from their injuries. There was no word on whether Koele was awarded a medal for his rescue efforts.

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A tragic crash in July 1951 involved the first quadruple-plane collision in Canadian aviation history.

Twelve Harvard trainers were flying in a routine V-formation of three echelons of four planes each over Dashwood when, according to investigators, a “freak accident” occurred. Twenty-nine-year-old Flying Officer W. B. Pollin’s aircraft was struck by an aircraft flying behind. Pollin was killed instantly when he crashed into a nearby grain field. Another flying officer, E. D. Price, 28, of London, England, crash-landed on a farm west of Dashwood but was able to limp away.

The other two pilots whose airplanes were involved in the collision said they felt “a bump” but were able bring their craft in safely to the Centralia station with only wing damage. Price earned the admiration of his fellow pilots because he pulled his aircraft out of a death spin and brought it down in “wheels up” without a rudder, which had been “ripped’ off the craft.” It was skill and a miracle that saved Price.

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RCAF Station Centralia’s international character was revealed when a French Air Force pilot cadet, in March 1952, was able to make an emergency “wheels-up” landing with his “Texan” trainer three miles northwest of Parkhill. French Flight Cadet E. Destrunel was practising emergency landings when his engine stalled and lacked the power to regain height. His plane crashed, but he escaped unhurt and was fit to fly the next day after his aircraft’s propeller was replaced.

Barely a week later, another crash involving a “Texan” trainer aircraft claimed the life of a NATO pilot on his first solo flight when the aircraft exploded in a ball of fire on impact in a farm field south of Crediton. A sudden snow squall from the lake made flying conditions hazardous for beginning pilot trainees, so the station control tower declared a “wash out” and called all pilots back for landing.

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Flying Officer Bob Ayres, a former bush pilot, was flying in from Ottawa and saw the crash. Jeopardizing his own safety, Ayres remained in the air and guided two other distressed pilots making their first solo flights back to the ground safely.

Another fatal crash occurred in April 1952, when Flight Cadet R M Langevin of Montreal was killed when his aircraft plunged into the ground a half-mile north of St Joseph.

On Nov. 3, 1954, witnesses from Brucefield and area noticed an aircraft having engine trouble nose dive a mile east of Brucefield onto Mac Chesney’s farm along Mill Road. The Brucefield fire department rushed to the scene but could not save Flight Cadet J. G. Lamoureux, 20. Lamoureux was due to graduate as a pilot in December. Morbid curiosity seekers drove past the crash site throughout the afternoon.

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In May 1955, Centralia’s famed four precision acrobatic team was practising its daring routine for the upcoming Air Force Day in June. The routine was almost over when Flying Officer George Recker, 22, failed to pull out of his dive and crashed to his death. Despite Recker’s death, the airshow continued without any curtailment of aerobatic activities.

That more pilots were not killed in crashes was due to pilot nerve and skill.

In September 1956, Flying Officer R. Weadick and his pilot trainee, RAF Pilot Officer P. Grindley, had just taken off when their Harvard engine quit. Weadick quickly took over controls of the aircraft and brought it down “in a very commendable performance” with slight damage to one propeller and wing which caught on a fence. Within three minutes of the crash, the station ambulance and crash tender were on site.

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In August 1959, another miraculous landing was credited to a Royal Norwegian Air Force pilot, Flight Cadet K. Tungesvik ,18. He was on a solo flight when, at 4,000 feet, the propeller flew off his Chipmunk aircraft. Tungesvik began to glide his plane to the Grand Bend relief field when a gust of wind forced him to land a mile south of it instead. Tungesvik slid his craft through two fences and rolled across the highway before bringing it to a standstill, suffering only minor damage. An RCN doctor who happened to be driving by stopped to examine the young airman and found him unhurt. Veteran RCAF pilots were “loud in their praise” of Tungesvik.

RCAF Centralia’s last fatal aircraft crash occurred in September 1965, when Flying Officer Keith Webber was killed flying his single-engine Chipmunk in close air support of a Royal Canadian Regiment exercise at Camp Ipperwash. The undercarriage of Webber’s Chipmunk clipped the treetops and flung the aircraft over, killing him instantly.

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The last flying incident occurred at Centralia in January 1966. Flight Lieut. James Brohman, 41, and Pilot Officer Rajah of the Malaysian Air Force were about to practise a forced landing when, upon landing the Chipmunk training aircraft, wheels dug into the snow on the runway, causing it to flip on its back. Both fliers were found hanging upside down and unhurt in their aircraft.

RCAF/CFB Centralia ceased aerial operations in 1966. It was an important local contribution to Canada’s war effort both in the Second World War and the Cold War. The lives lost at the air station are a testament to the high cost of freedom.

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