Wings Over the Wilderness

Aviation has always been the lifeline of Labrador West. Before the roads were paved, flying was the only way in or out, and relying on aircraft in the subarctic carried a heavy price. Again and again, the region’s history turns on moments when the sky stopped being a highway and became a hazard.

For its first decade, Labrador West was an island in the sky. Before the railway was finished in 1954 and the Trans-Labrador Highway in the 1980s, the only way in or out was by air. The airspace over Wabush in the 1950s was anything but quiet. For a few years it was one of the busiest air corridors in the world.

The Industrial Airlift: Hollinger Ungava Transport (1948–1954)

If you looked up in Wabush in 1952, you would see a plane landing every few minutes. This was no commercial service. It was a private industrial air force.

To build the QNS&L Railway to ship the ore, the Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC) founded its own airline: Hollinger Ungava Transport (HUT).

• The Fleet: They flew a large fleet of war-surplus Douglas DC-3s and C-46 Commandos, rugged unpressurized workhorses.
• The Frequency: At the peak of construction (1952–1953), HUT averaged 70 flights a day.
• The Record: In 1953 alone the airline flew 68 million pounds of cargo, more than every other commercial airline in Canada combined that year.
• The “Airport”: There was no terminal. Planes landed on rough gravel strips cleared by bulldozers, or on the frozen ice of Ashuanipi Lake in the winter.
• The Cargo: Everything from bags of cement to dismantled bulldozers. If it couldn’t fit in a DC-3, it didn’t come to Labrador.

The Commercial Dawn: The Opening of YWK (1961)

Once the railway was finished, the frantic industrial airlift ended and the era of passenger travel began. Wabush Airport (YWK) officially opened in 1961, owned by Transport Canada and serving as the gateway for the families now moving to the town.

Two major airlines dominated the schedule, dividing the town along linguistic and geographic lines.

Eastern Provincial Airways (EPA)

Known as “The Newfoundland Airline,” EPA connected Wabush to the island and the English-speaking world.

• Route: St. John’s – Gander – Deer Lake – Goose Bay – Wabush – Montreal.
• Early aircraft: The Handley Page Dart Herald, a loud turboprop that became the signature sound of the era.
• The Jet Age (1970): EPA introduced the Boeing 737-200 to the route, cutting travel time to St. John’s or Montreal in half. The EPA flight was the “commuter bus” for Newfoundlanders, painted bright orange and white.

Quebecair

Known as the “French Connection,” Quebecair connected Wabush to the mining head offices in Quebec.

• Route: Montreal – Quebec City – Sept-Îles – Wabush.
• Aircraft: The BAC One-Eleven (a British twin-engine jet) and the Fairchild F-27 turboprop.
• The Role: This was the airline used by IOC executives and the Québécois workforce commuting from the North Shore.

The Company Planes

Wabush Mines employees and their families could use the company plane, a vital link to the ownership group’s headquarters at Pickands Mather in Cleveland, Ohio. You put your name on the list and flew in or out two days a week, connecting Wabush to Sept-Îles and Montreal. Families and university students often used it to come home for Christmas, or to fly to Sept-Îles and pick up a car that had been shipped down by train. By the early 1970s the plane was simply part of the furniture of town life: a passing mention in The Aurora on August 4, 1971 refers to “the Wabush Mines company plane” right alongside the everyday comings and goings of the community.

The Crash That Almost Stopped History (1969)

On November 11, 1969, a plane crash wiped out the entire leadership team of the Churchill Falls (Labrador) Corporation (CFLCo) at the absolute peak of the massive hydro project’s construction.

The Mission

The executive team was flying from Churchill Falls to Montreal with a short stopover planned in Wabush. CEO Donald McParland was due to give a speech that night to the local branch of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy in Labrador City. Their aircraft was a brand-new DH-125 business jet (registration CF-CFL), the corporate pride of the company.

The “Wrong Beacon” Tragedy

The crash was not a mechanical failure; it was a navigational tragedy caused by a subtle error in terrible weather.

• The Error: The pilots were flying an instrument approach in a pitch-black night with low cloud ceilings. They needed to lock onto the WZ Beacon (the airport approach beacon). Instead, investigators believe they mistakenly tuned their instruments to the WK Beacon (an airway beacon located miles away).
• The Result: The pilots thought they were lined up with the Wabush runway. In reality, they were parallel to it but 6 miles off course.
• The Impact: Expecting to see runway lights, they descended through the clouds. At 6:30 PM, the jet slammed directly into the rock face of the Smallwood Mine property, just north of the airport.

The crash killed all 8 people on board. These were not just managers; they were the people who had worked out how to build a dam in the middle of the subarctic wilderness. Among the dead was Donald McParland, the driving force behind the whole project, along with several of his key engineers and managers.

The project did finish, largely because McParland had built such a robust team below him. Today, the executive guest house in Churchill Falls is named Donald McParland House. For residents of Wabush and Labrador City, the crash remains haunting because it happened on Remembrance Day, adding a permanent somber layer to the holiday in the local memory.

The Hijacking of Flight 321 (1972)

On December 14, 1972, Quebecair Flight 321 was hijacked, a story that says everything about the relaxed security of the era, when a passenger could walk onto a plane carrying a rifle.

The Incident

• The Hijacker: Larry Maxwell Stanford (21 years old), a former IOC employee who had recently become unemployed.
• The Boarding: Stanford boarded the flight in Wabush carrying a .22-calibre rifle. In 1972, airport security in remote locations was virtually non-existent.
• The Takeover: Once airborne, Stanford took control. He forced the pilots to fly to Montreal, then Ottawa, then back to Montreal. His ultimate demand was to be flown to Vancouver.

The Heroism of Josette Côté Dishongh

The situation was resolved largely due to the incredible bravery of flight attendant Josette Côté Dishongh. While the aircraft was on the ground in Montreal, she spent hours talking to Stanford, keeping him calm despite his agitated state. She convinced him to release the passengers first and eventually to surrender.

No one was killed or injured. This incident, along with a global wave of hijackings, contributed to the rapid tightening of airport security across Canada. It is remembered by long-time residents as the moment “big city crime” came to the isolated mining town.

The Tragedy of Flight 111 (2010)

On September 28, 2010, another crash claimed the lives of two prominent mining contracting executives and their pilots just outside Wabush Airport.

The Incident

• The Victims: Stéphane Lecavalier (President) and Christian Arseneault (VP) of L. Fournier & Fils, a major heavy civil contractor in the region, along with pilots Raymond Green and Fabian Pauzé.
• The Crash: The Beechcraft King Air A-100 crashed into the wooded area just 300 metres from the runway at Wabush Airport.

The Cause

The Transportation Safety Board (TSB) investigation revealed a tragic sequence: the pilot, Raymond Green, likely suffered a sudden medical incapacitation (suspected cardiac event) during the final approach. As he slumped forward, he pushed the control column down. The co-pilot tried to pull the plane out of the dive, but the suddenness and low altitude made recovery impossible.

Because the crash happened so close to the airport and the town, many residents saw the smoke or heard the impact. It served as a grim reminder of the risks of the “fly-in” culture that executives and workers engage in daily.