BY DAVE KOSONIC

The skies above South Etobicoke have an innocent connection to the tragic crash of an Air Canada DC – 8 jet that occurred near Brampton 50 years ago on July 1970 claiming 109 lives.

Captain Peter Hamilton and First Officer Wade Rowland were making a routine landing approach to

Runway 32 at the then Toronto International Airport on a beautiful sunny Sunday morning just minutes

before things started to go deadly wrong in the cockpit.

The glide path to the runway went over main roadways including the Queen Elizabeth Way, Lakeshore Blvd. West and Dundas and Bloor Streets. The ill-fated jet also flew directly over Cloverdale Mall.

The Douglas Aircraft jet registered as CF-T1W was about a minute from touchdown when Hamilton and

Rowland became involved in a discussion over when to activate the wing spoilers, which are used to

neutralize the lift of the aircraft as it touched down and ensured the plane would stop safely before the

end of Runway 32, near Derry Road.

Hamilton wanted to activate them upon touch down but Rowland insisted on pulling the spoiler lever at a height of about 60 feet above the runway, which led to everyone onboard  losing their lives minutes later.

This aircraft had departed from Montreal about 45 minutes earlier and after the scheduled Toronto

stopover it would have proceeded to Los Angeles.

Here are excerpts from the official cockpit voice transcripts just before the crash that were released to

the public. Hamilton to Rowland: “All right. Give it to me on the flare. I have given up. I am tired of

fighting it.” Moments later when Rowland realized he had made a fatal decision he said to Hamilton:

“Sorry Pete!!.” Then Hamilton states: “We’ve got an explosion.” Then unknown voice: “We’ve lost a

wing.” And all transmissions terminated from the cockpit.

Just before that Hamilton made a split-second decision to abort the landing, fly another circuit and make

a second landing attempt on Runway 32. But unfortunately he didn’t realize that he had lost an engine

and most of a wing. His aircraft was no longer airworthy and dived into the ground. The crash site was a devastating scene with aircraft wreckage, body parts and personal belongings strewn all over the place.

Ironically one of the Flight 621 passengers lived in the Markland Woods area of Etobicoke, just

south of the airport. The final approach path of the doomed aircraft went directly over this person’s

home about 500 feet in height.

In 2013, a memorial site was officially opened for Flight 621 in the Castlemore area, north of Brampton, that includes the names of all who perished.

One positive outcome to this sad event did occur. Orders were issued that required all in-service DC-8s

to be modified so that wing spoilers could never again be prematurely activated by pilots

before touchdowns.