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Aviation History Newfoundland and Labrador

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Aviation History Newfoundland and Labrador

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AHNL is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to preserving & promoting Newfoundland & Labrador's rich aviation history.

In 2019, AHNL spearheaded celebrations to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Alcock & Brown's successful transatlantic flight.

10/18/2026

From Military Service to Fighting Forest Fires: The Catalina at Botwood
By David Hebbard

The historic PBY Catalina displayed at Botwood, Newfoundland, has a remarkable aviation history spanning several countries and more than four decades of flying.

Built in 1944 by Canadian Vickers in Montreal as a PBV-1A, the aircraft was designated an OA-10A by the United States Army Air Forces and carried the military serial number 44-34094. Following the Second World War, it was sold as military surplus in 1946, beginning a long and varied civilian career.

In 1949, the aircraft entered service with Loftleiðir Icelandic Airlines, where it was registered TF-RVG and given the name Vestfirðingur. By 1952, it had made its way to Canada, where it was registered CF-DFB.
Over the next 26 years, the Catalina operated with several Canadian aviation companies, including Aero Magnetic Surveys, Kenting Aviation, Wheeler Northland Airways and Austin Airways. Its work took it to distant locations, including Pakistan, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and Ireland.

In October 1978, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador acquired the aircraft for forest firefighting duties. Registered C-FDFB and identified as Tanker No. 1, the veteran Catalina spent the next decade helping battle forest fires throughout the province.

Retired from active service in 1989, the aircraft eventually found a permanent home at Botwood, where it stands as a reminder of both Newfoundland's flying-boat heritage and the extraordinary working lives of these rugged aircraft.

Although this particular Catalina did not have a documented wartime connection with Botwood, it represents the type of aircraft that once operated from the community's historic flying-boat base during the Battle of the Atlantic earning a place in Newfoundland & Labrador’s diverse aviation history.

10/03/2026

Fire on the hill: The 1946 Stephenville Air Disaster.

By David W. Hebbard

In the early morning hours of October 3, 1946, one of Newfoundland’s most tragic aviation accidents occurred in the hills northeast of Stephenville NL.
The aircraft was an American Overseas Airlines Douglas C-54E, the military-derived version of the DC-4 airliner, named Flagship New England and registered NC90904. It was operating a transatlantic service from New York to Europe with 31 passengers and eight crew members aboard.
The flight had originally planned to stop at Gander, but poor weather forced the crew to divert to Ernest Harmon Field at Stephenville. After landing and remaining on the ground for several hours, the aircraft prepared to continue to Shannon, Ireland.
Shortly before 5:00 a.m., the DC-4 departed Stephenville from Runway 7. The runway pointed toward rising terrain northeast of the airfield. After takeoff, the aircraft continued approximately along the runway heading rather than turning away from the higher ground.
Only a few minutes later, Flagship New England struck a mountain ridge about seven miles northeast of Harmon Field, at an elevation of roughly 1,160 feet. The aircraft was destroyed by the impact and fire. All 39 people aboard were killed instantly.
Among the passengers were women and children travelling to Europe in the early post-war period, some on their way to join family members serving with American forces overseas. Contemporary Newfoundland newspapers reported that 12 women and six children were among the victims.
The United States Civil Aeronautics Board investigated the accident and found no evidence of a mechanical failure. The aircraft was considered airworthy and was operating within approved weight and balance limits.
The Board concluded that the probable cause was:
“The action of the pilot in maintaining the direction of take-off toward higher terrain over which adequate clearance could not be gained.”
The ridge where the aircraft crashed was known as Hare Hill or Hare Mountain, but following the disaster it became widely known as Crash Hill.
A memorial was later established on the mountain to honour the 39 victims. Wreckage from the aircraft remained scattered across the site for decades, and archaeological work carried out in 2012 documented surviving remains of the DC-4 and helped identify the extent of the original wreckage field.
Today, Crash Hill remains an important memorial and a significant site in Newfoundland aviation history. It stands as a reminder of the risks faced by early post-war transatlantic aviation and of the passengers and crew whose journey ended only minutes after leaving Stephenville.

09/21/2026

AHNL remembers the Newfoundland & Labrador Airmen from WW 1

09/05/2026

Flight 523 was a scheduled international flight from Prague, Czechoslovakia to Havana, Cuba, via Shannon, Ireland, and Gander, Newfoundland. It departed Prague at 1649 hours GMT on 4 September and proceeded to Shannon where it arrived at 2020 hours for a routine servicing stop. It departed Shannon at 2131 hours arriving at Gander at 0326 hours on 5 September following an uneventful flight. The crew which had flown the aircraft from Prague disembarked at Gander and was replaced by a crew which had been off duty in Gander from 3 September. At Gander the aircraft was serviced and refuelled under the supervision of the flight engineer of the outgoing flight. A flight plan to Havana was filed at about 0405 hours and at 0504 hours the aircraft began taxiing to the threshold of runway 14. It was cleared to take-off at 0508 hours. The length of the ground roll was normal, the undercarriage and flaps were retracted, but the angle of climb was abnormally shallow. At 0509 hours the flight advised the tower controller that the aircraft was airborne, the tower controller acknowledged the transmission and advised the flight to contact Air Traffic Control Centre on a frequency of 119.7 MHz. Whilst the radio operator was changing frequency the aircraft struck the ground about 4 000 feet beyond the end of the runway. The accident occurred at 0510 hours GMT. Debris scattered on 1,500 meters and 32 occupants were wounded while 37 others were killed, among them 4 crew members.
Investigations were unable to determine the exact cause of the accident.
Note the story about Austin Garrett. A true Hero!

08/10/2026

Marion Orr was born in Ontario in 1918 and orphaned young, raised by relatives, and by every account she was stubborn in the best possible way. She worked in a factory and spent every dollar she could scrape together on flying lessons at a time when the sky was considered no place for a woman.
She earned her private license, then her commercial license, and then something almost unheard of for a Canadian woman of that era: her instructor's rating. By the early 1940s she was teaching men to fly at a Toronto-area airport, one of a tiny handful of women in the country qualified to do so. 🍁
Then the war deepened, and the RCAF made a decision that shut the door on her. Women were not going to fly as pilots for the RCAF.
Marion Orr did not accept that as an answer. She learned that Britain's Air Transport Auxiliary, the civilian ferry organization that moved aircraft from factories to squadrons, was accepting women. In 1942 she crossed the Atlantic to join them.
Understand what ATA pilots actually did, because it was far more dangerous than the word "ferry" suggests.
They flew alone. They were given aircraft they had often never flown before, sometimes with only a set of handling notes to consult. The aircraft were unarmed, and many had no operational radio, leaving pilots to rely on a map, compass, and dead reckoning. They flew in British weather that grounded operational squadrons, threading between hills and barrage balloons in conditions where the weather often proved a greater danger than the enemy.
Many ATA pilots were killed doing it. Weather and mechanical failure claimed more of them than enemy action ever did.
Marion Orr flew everything they gave her. Trainers, transports, and fighters, including the Spitfire, that glorious, twitchy, unforgiving machine many pilots called the most beautiful aircraft ever built. She delivered them to the squadrons that would take them into combat, then caught a lift back and did it again.
She was one of only a small number of Canadian women who flew with the ATA, a tiny sisterhood in the history of this country's aviation.

08/01/2026

No. 10 (BR) Squadron was one of the most distinctive Royal Canadian Air Force units stationed at Gander during the Second World War. Originally formed in 1937, it became a permanent anti-submarine squadron.
The squadron moved to Gander in 1941, shortly after the RCAF took over operational control of the airfield. The move was completed by the spring of 1941, making No. 10 Squadron the principal long-range patrol unit operating from Newfoundland. Equipped, at first, with the Douglas B-18 Bolo ( Digby) twin engine aircraft it would be the radar equipped and modified B-24-D that the squadron would be most noted for. Operational around the clock 10 (BR) is credited with the sinking of three German submarines.
U-520 30 October 1942, U-341 19 September 1943 and U-420 26 October 1943.
Photos restored and colorized. Click on each photo for a larger view.

07/29/2026

In this photograph a white flare is fired from the control tower at Gander during ww2. Flares were often used
when radio communication were interrupted or not available. While exact procedures varied somewhat between the Royal Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force, and United States Army Air Forces, the basic color meanings were very similar.
Green
Cleared to land or cleared for takeoff (depending on whether the aircraft was in the air or on the ground).
Red
Do not land, stop, or give way; the aerodrome was unsafe or another aircraft had priority.
White
Return to starting point on the airfield, or in some cases acknowledge or indicate general information.
Red and Green together
Exercise extreme caution; watch for further instructions or hazards.
This photo would have required skill by the photographer as the large format camera (4"x 5" negative) would have to be mounted on a sturdy tripod with a precise exposure calculation made to preserve detail in the shadows. Not an easy task with 1940s camera equipment and film.
Note the line of B-24s from No. 10 Bomber Reconnaissance Squadron (RCAF)
Photo restored and colorized by David Hebbard.

07/27/2026

USAAF personnel skiing in style around Gander air base spring 1944. Photographed by Sgt John Meyer senior of four USAAF photographers stationed at the base during the war. The Americans operated a complete photographic lab with the addition of seven photo technicians (more on this later)
This photo was originally shot in large format B&W but I have restored it print ready in full color.

07/25/2026

"The Bug" was a bright orange motorized rail-car that operated at Gander Airport starting around 1938. Powered by a four-cylinder gas engine, this unique narrow-gauge vehicle was vital for transporting aviation personnel, meteorologists, and heavy equipment before proper roads existed. It also served the wider community by carrying medical supplies and assisting during local train derailments. Today, it remains a beloved symbol of Gander's early aviation history and rugged wartime resourcefulness.

07/15/2026

Construction of the airport’s Administration Building was started in 1937 and finished in the fall of 1938. It was occupied on November13, 1938 when S/L Pattison, along with his administrative staff and meteorological and radio communications personnel moved to the Newfoundland Airport from Botwood, where they had been supporting the trans-Atlantic flying boat operations.
Photo restored,colorized and print ready. See less

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