::: UNDERSTANDING THE FLIGHT 621 MEMORIAL as we approach the 50TH YEAR ANNIVERSARY of the Castlemore, Ontario air disaster.

THREE PHOTOS, OVERLAID ONE on the another, tell a still hidden story, or at least a story not well known of this now famous Air Canada “stretch” DC-8 crash.

 

 

While these photos are not a perfect match-up (because each photo was taken from a different vantage point)…still, their alignment IS close enough. Can there be any doubt about what they reveal?

 

 

There are distinctive land based markers from the span of years 1970, 2004, and 2018 that once matched—and brought together through a digital overlay—tell the astute viewer this untold story: The FLIGHT 621 MEMORIAL GARDEN (Castlemore) Ontario sits RIGHT ON TOP of the exact July 5, 1970 crash point of the ill-fated airliner.

 

 

Compare the 1970 UPI Press photo, with the 2004 Google Earth photo, and the final 2018 Google Earth photo noting the circled markers with their contents—which align—almost perfectly.

 

 

It is here where the crippled Air Canada “Stretch” DC-8-63 (CF-TIW) went fourteen feet into the ground at approximately 250 mph, killing all 109 passengers and crew in what remains Air Canada’s largest loss of life accident to this day.

 

 

The Memorial Garden, the 109 granite markers (representing each person who perished) and the large pink granite boulder with its’ black granite plaque inscribed with each crash victim’s name and the adjacent portioned off parcel of land marked by its’ double row of fledgling trees (to the immediate south, right in the photo) display the careful planning, and consideration of the land developers and planning partners.

 

 

This hallowed bit of ground indeed encapsulates the main body of the Air Canada DC-8 crash.

 

 

And while the City of Brampton wanted to locate the Memorial Garden and Cemetery somewhere…“near to” the crash site, it was engineer Diarmuid Horgan, of Candevcon Limited, who insisted the Memorial be placed right atop the actual crash point. And rightly so.

 

 

I am someone who walked the field numerous times, back in the day, stood at the old (now removed) bridge and atop the former Burgsma residence.

 

 

I was there when the new house was being erected atop the old Burgsma home lot—with Burgsma kitchen tile and other household remnants—on the very boundary of the new home’s concrete basement. So the planners got the crash location right, as can now be seen by all who view my video.

 

 

BUT—IS THAT IT?

 

 

No, the Castlemore Memorial is still more.

 

 

It is an official Ontario irregular cemetery.

 

 

Unfortunately, bones of crash victims were inadvertently left behind after the crash.

 

 

Or were buried deeply by the force of the crash at the time—pushed downward into the soil—eventually surfacing decades later.

 

 

I, (Paul Cardin) made the first unpleasant discovery of Flight 621’s victim’s bones still remaining in the field, in June 2002, after seeing a Mike Strobel SUN article (November 2001) revisiting the 1970 crash accompanied by Will Burgsma who resided in the house noted in the video. With Mike’s article sitting in my car for months, I finally had the opportunity to go have a look in the early summer of 2002.

 

 

Hundreds of bones (and notable aircraft wreckage) were eventually collected by myself and other members of “Friends of Flight 621” (Carol Parr, Barb Winckler, Carrie Parr, Tom Stone, Mike Quatrale, Gord Ransom, Rebecca Reid, and the independent researcher Jan Burton). Some victim families also found aircraft wreckage on site, but thankfully no bone fragments. Peter Hill, son of Second Officer (navigator) did however find a partial denture which was startling to all of us there with him.

 

 

In 2003, ex-Metro police officer Tom Stone called Robert Milton (Air Canada CEO) himself and put forth the idea of a new memorial being erected on site, and that the deplorable situation of victim’s bones remains still being found at the former crash site be rectified. Days later, Tom and I were in the field with three Air Canada executives, and Doug Kirkwood, who had assisted with the crash clean-up emergency personnel back in July of 1970. The executive trio were surprised to find so much aircraft debris still in the field, that one of them was even able to identify a piece he found, and where it had come from on the aircraft!

 

 

In 2004, Carol Parr, on CBC TV again, with viewers in the millions called for a memorial to be built on the former crash site.

 

 

In 2004, Barbara Winckler, a 1970 eyewitness to the Air Canada crash, gathered an information package together for the City of Brampton that included photos, newspaper clippings, history and details about the crash, pages from the crash report AND most importantly information about how and why the Province of Ontario can accord irregular cemetery status to unusual grave-sites. This information package was given to Jim Leonard of the Brampton Historical Society, who presented it to the City, for us.

 

 

Given the existing situation at the former crash site, Barb knew that the Air Canada crash site would qualify as an irregular cemetery, as she, and Carol Parr (another eyewitness to the crash) had together, with other “Friends”, found numerous bones in the farm field themselves! At a multitude of locations.

 

 

I had a Flight 621 website that noted, complete with pictures, from 2003 onward, the more ridiculous and recent happenings and discoveries at the former crash site.

 

 

Several victim’s families found my Flight 621 website and contacted me though it. Some came to the field, including a member of the Labonte family who expressed their distress about the ongoing bone situation, to their Quebec MP at the time, who then raised the issue in the House of Commons!

 

 

In 2006, Diarmuid Horgan called an aviation archeologist, Dana Poulton, and his associates to investigate the former crash site. The team proceeded to conduct digs and discovered 90 more victim’s bones—all over the former crash site. It was then determined that the existing “situation” of the field had to be properly dealt with. A problem “Friends of Flight 621”, on TV, through newspaper and radio, web sites, and postings had complained about for years—but lacked official capacity with the City, or those who would actually address these specific matters. City Councillor, John Sprovieri, did respond to us, and told us the situation would take about five years to wind its way through city hall.

 

 

But he noted, I, or rather my discoveries, had created a “situation”!

 

 

John stated that if people were told about the crash—many…probably wouldn’t want to buy a new house there. And if potential homeowners weren’t told about the crash, and found out later—well, the City could be sued.

 

 

But the situation was resolved. Potential homeowners were told about the crash, people bought homes there, AND most importantly to me, no more crash victim bones would be found at the former crash site.

 

 

Proper burial of the deceased is a corporeal work of mercy, as every Catholic knows. Jesus, the Lord, Himself, was buried according to long-held Jewish religious practices of the Old Covenant. Jews and Catholics know the importance God places on a proper burial. Only savages, or the reprobate, don’t bury their dead. And considering the horrific nature of the crash itself, the lives lost so tragically, with the additional indignity of the remaining bones (inadvertently left behind for more than three decades) out there a farm field, in all seasons—proper burial of the victims at that point—became an indispensable work of charity surpassing even almsgiving itself.

 

 

The bones the “Friends of Flight 621” found were turned over to the Coroner’s Office through Candevcon Limited. The remaining victim’s bones still dispersed within the crash site soil, were finally gathered together strategically, by removing the large tract of affected soil, and entombing it right under the Flight 621 Memorial Garden and Cemetery. The area which includes the crash arena is currently marked off by the double row of trees, previously mentioned, and with additional white obelisks. I myself witnessed, and photographed part of this encapsulating process, as it unfolded.

 

 

Let the readership note, victims of Flight 621 at the time of the crash were buried by Air Canada in Toronto’s Mount Pleasant Cemetery, among famous Canadians, musicians, and even a prime minister or two.

 

 

But it is here, in Castlemore on July 5, 1970—where these passengers and crew of Flight 621 breathed their last.

 

 

So, it is only fitting, that they are also buried here.

 

Check here, on July 5, 2020, after 7 pm:

www.flickr.com/photos/78215847@N00/albums/721576246894922...

 

ADD A CONDOLENCE to the FLIGHT 621 FAMILIES, or a LOVED ONE from FLIGHT 621, or a MEMORY of a PERSONAL EVENT related to the crash…at the City of Brampton's permanent Flight 621 site…SEE: www.brampton.ca/EN/City-Hall/Protocol-Office/Brampton-Rem...

 

 

REST IN PEACE passengers and crew of Flight 621:

 

Adams, Celine Fradette

Adams, Pierre J

Beaudin, Gaetan

Belanger, Mrs.

Belanger, Jacques

Belanger, Jean

Belanger, Roland

Belanger, Rosanne

Benson, Helen

Benson, Leonard

Benson, Mary

Benson, Richard

Bertrand, Ginette

Boosamra, Lynn

Boulanger, Guy

Bradshaw, Dollie

Cedilot, Robert J

Chapdeleine, Jeannine

Chapdeleine, Joanne

Chapdeleine, Mario

Charent, Jean Maurice

Clarke, Devona Olivia

Cote, Francine

Daoust, Yolande

Desmarais, Brigitte

Desmarais, G

Dicaire, Alice (Marie)

Dicaire, Gilles

Dicaire, Linda

Dicaire, Luke

Dicaire, Mark

Dion, Suzanne

Dore, Jacqueline

Earle, Lewella

Earle, Linda

Filippone, Francesco

Filippone, Linda

Filippone, Marie

Gee, Bernard

Goulet, Denise M

Grenier, Madeleine

Growse, Diana Cicely

Growse, Jane

Growse, Roger

Hamilton, Karen E

Hamilton, Peter Cameron

Herrmann, Ronald Alvin

Hill, Harry Gordon

Holiday, Claude

Houston, Irene Margaret

Houston, Wesley

Jakobsen, Vagn Aage

Labonte, Gilles

Leclaire, Marie Rose

Leclaire, Oscar

Leduc, Henri W

Lepage, Claudette

Mailhiot, Claire Gagnon

Mailhiot, Gerald Bernard

Maitz, Gustave

Maitz, Karoline

McKettrick, Winnifred

McTague, John

Medizza, Carla

Mohammed, Dolly

Molino, Antonio

Molino, Michael (Michel)

Moore, Frederick T

Partridge, Andrea

Partridge, Carnie (Carnis) Ann

Partridge, Cyril Wayne

Phillips, Kenneth William

Poirier, Rita

Raymond, Gilles

Raymond, Martial

Robert, Aline

Robert, Georges E

Robidoux, Lionel

Rowland, Donald

Silverberg, Marci

Silverberg, Merle

Silverberg, Steven

Simon, Istvan

Simon, Mark

Smith, Dwight Lee

St. Laurent, Blanche

Stepping, Glenn Thomas

Sultan, Celia

Sultan, Jerald. M

Sultan, Robert. L

Szpakowicz, Borys

Szpakowicz, Serge

Tielens, Carmen

Tielens, Frederick

Tournovits, George

Tournovits, Soula (Athanasia)

Weinberg, Carla

Weinberg, Rita

Weinberg, Wendy

Whittingham, Jennifer

Whittingham, John

Whittingham, Reginald

Whybro, Mary Baker

Wieczorek, Hildegund

Witmer, Edgar

Wong, Ngar-Quon

Wong, Suzie

Wong, Wong (Mansing)

Woodward, Dallas J

 

 

 

© 2020 LPR CARDIN II - Friends of Flight 621

© 1970 UPI Press

© 2004 Google Earth Maps

© 2018 Google Earth Maps

© 2014 Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist,

....."Let Nothing Disturb You"

 

Done