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Pilots recount fatal flight

Broadcast Date: June 7, 1983

In 1983 an Air Canada plane travelling from Dallas to Toronto catches fire mid-air. At 9,300 metres, smoke wafting from the bathroom turns into a massive blaze. Trapped passengers scramble to the front of the dark, smoke-filled cabin. In 20 minutes, 23 of the 46 passengers are dead.
In this CBC Television clip, pilots Donald Cameron and Claude Ouimet tell the story of landing the burning plane in Cincinnati without functioning radio equipment.

The disaster would be one of three suffered by Air Canada in 1983. Far from the airline's golden age of the 1960s, the incidents would mar the airline's reputation and overall success.

Pilots recount fatal flight

• A passenger who survived the flight later said, "There was a little smoke in the back of the plane...There was the impression that everything was under control."
• Passengers praised Air Canada staff for its deftness during the emergency. Five crew members shuffled 18 survivors off the plane before exiting through smashed windows.
• Pilot Donald Cameron actually landed the plane while his seat was on fire.

• A faulty electrical pump in the toilet was suspected to have started the fire. Although a definitive cause was never determined, cigarette smoking was immediately ruled out.
• Cyanide released when the plane's synthetic seat cushions caught fire was found in the bodies of those who perished.
• In large amounts, cyanide is poisonous. Serious exposure causes loss of consciousness, apnea and heart attack.

• Soon after the crash, Transport Minister Lloyd Axworthy released new airline safety measures including special evacuation lights and heat-activated fire extinguishers in the restrooms.
• The 1983 measures meant retrofitting 130 planes at a cost of $5 million.
• There were two other Air Canada incidents in 1983. An Air Canada DC-9 slid off a Regina runway and a B-767 glided into Manitoba's Gimli airport after running out of fuel mid-air.

• Canada's worst commercial plane crash was at Sainte-Thérèse-de-Blainville, Que. in 1963. The crash killed 118 people. The plane was a TCA DC-8.
• In 1990, Air Canada was the first airline to ban smoking on transatlantic flights, with exceptions for four flights per week between London and Singapore.

Pilots recount fatal flight

Medium: Television

Program: The National

Broadcast Date: June 7, 1983

Guest(s): Donald Cameron, Claude Ouimet

Host: Knowlton Nash
Reporter: Don MacPherson

Duration: 2:59

Last updated:
Dec. 17, 2003