Sabena Transatlantic crossing

Tom has also written a fascinating first hand account of a visit to the site of a Sabena DC-4 crash site in Newfoundland.

St. Martin’s in the Woods: a Silent Witness of the Fatal Flight of the OO-CBG!

Tuesday, July 15th 2014 just before 8 a.m. Finally. I am sitting on a bench in front of the entrance of Sinbad’s Hotel in Gander, Newfoundland. I am waiting for my guide. He is going to take me to the spot where on the September 18th 1946, a Sabena DC-4 airliner with registration OO-CBG crashed. We emailed in the months before, but it was only the first time that we met in real life.

You are probably wondering why I wanted to visit this site. My interest in aviation started when I was twelve years old. In the beginning I was interested in everything about commercial aviation. Later on I specialized in Belgian commercial aviation and Sabena in particular. Friends of mine who worked for Sabena often brought me little things and I am sure that they helped to keep the interest alive. Alongside the glamorous part of aviation, I was also curious about the more tragic aspects of commercial aviation. A book called Rampen in België (Disasters in Belgium) written by Christian Deglas focussed my attention on the crash of the DC-4 in Gander. When I was searching the internet for more information about this crash, I found the book of Frank F. Tibbo, Charlie Baker George. St. Martin-in-the-woods & the Story of Sabena OOCBG. I bought the book and I read it in one go. After reading this book, my dream was to visit the crash site one day.

In Autumn 2013 when I was looking for information about Jeanne Bruylant, who was the first flight attendant hired by Sabena I found the email address of Frank Tibbo. I asked him if he had information about Jeanne Bruylant and if it was possible to visit the crash site of the OO-CBG. Sadly he could not help me with my question about Jeanne Bruylant, but he did tell me it was possible to visit the site. There were two possibilities to get to the place where the plane came down. The first was by helicopter, but it would set me back around CAD 800,00 or 650 euro. The other way was by all terrain vehicle or ATV. When he mailed me back his answer, he also forwarded his mail to my guide and he advised me to get in touch with my guide and make further arrangements with him. That is what I did and I was also able to convince my girlfriend to make another trip to Canada. We would visit some friends in Québec and then drive on with a visit to Gros Mourne National Park on the way to Gander.

My guide had asked me to call him when we would arrive in Gander. On the phone he had sounded like a very nice guy and I had the feeling I had already known him for years. We agreed to meet in the bar of the hotel at 7 p.m. to make some practical arrangements for our trip deep into the woods around Gander Lake. He was going to pick me up the next morning around 8 a.m. and was going to bring lunch for the both of us. With all the practical stuff settled, the conversation became a nice chat with a very nice guy who looked a little rough. In his emails he had told me he would not charge me anything for this trip, so as a good Belgian I had brought him some excellent Belgian chocolates. I had promised him that I would send him more coming Fall.

The next morning, a few minutes after eight o’clock and Ed arrived with his Chevrolet pickup truck in front of the hotel. We stopped at Tim Hortons for some coffee and a bagel and then we drove to Glenwood where we picked up the trailer with two ATV’s. From there we continued on the Transcanada 1 for a little while. Then we left the paved roads and we drove on over unpaved roads. At first, the road was still wide enough to let two cars pass each other. After an hour or so the dirt road got narrower and Ed parked his pickup truck when we had passed a bridge over a river. From here we had to use the ATV’s. I could see that there were still people living around there, but I got the feeling that it would not take long before we would not see houses anymore. After a while we turned on an even smaller road and from here on my off road driving skills were really tested (it was after all my first time on an ATV off-road). After an hour or so, the road started to look more like a trail or a dried out creek, we stopped at a white sign with black letters saying SABENA. The sign pointed in the direction of the crash site. From here we had to walk.

The DC-4 was designed and built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from Santa Monica in California. The prototype first flew on February 14th 1942, but meanwhile the United States got involved in the Second World War and the American government commandeered all available production lines with the aircraft manufacturers. That is why the airlines were not able to put the DC-4 into commercial service until 1946.

Sabena ordered four new DC-4-1009 aircraft with Douglas in November 1945. The first airplane was delivered to the Belgian airline on February 13th 1946 and was baptised Ville de Bruxelles (City of Brussels) on February 18th 1946 at the Douglas factory in Santa Monica. The plane was registered in Belgian Congo as OO-CBD. The three other airplanes were also registered in Belgian Congo and received the following registrations: OO-CBE, OO-CBF and OO-CBG. Sabena wanted to use the DC-4’s on her lines to the Belgian colony, but also on the new transatlantic services.

Sabena’s plan was, as soon as additional aircraft had arrived from Douglas, to fly twice a week from Brussels (Melsbroek) to New York (Idlewild) with stopovers in Shannon, Ireland and Gander, Newfoundland. On July 5th 1946, the first of nine proving flights left Brussels. All of the proving flights were supposed to be flown with the OO-CBG.

Tuesday September 17th 1946, 3 p.m. GMT, the OO-CBG took off from Melsbroek with New York as final destination. In Shannon the airplane made a fuel stop. After crossing the Atlantic Ocean the flight would touch ground in Gander Newfoundland to make a second fuel stop. After Gander OO-CBG would continue its journey to New York.

The crew of the DC-4 existed of seven people. Jean Ester was the captain with Alfred Drossaert as his co-pilot. The rest of the cockpit-crew was made up of flight-engineer A. Fassbender, navigator L.C. John Verstraeten and radio-operator Jean Dutoict. The two flight attendants Jeanne Bruylant and Jeanne Roockx were taking care of the 37 passengers. Most of the passengers were Belgian, but there also were six Americans, two people from Luxembourg and one Chinese on board. The Chinese passenger was John King. He was the son of the Chinese ambassador in Belgium. He was among the survivors. The wife, the son and the two daughters of Gilbert Périer were also making the transatlantic crossing to show it was safe to fly. Gilbert Périer was the CEO of Sabena back then. His wife and one of his daughters did not survive the crash. They were both buried at the little cemetery next to the wreckage. His son Etienne and his other daughter Jeanne were lucky to survive. Henri Pauwels was amongst the Belgian victims. He used to be a minister in the Belgian government.

After a walk of about 20 minutes on a sometimes pretty muddy trail we arrived at the spot where the flight of the brand new Sabena DC-4 from Brussels to New York came to a fatal ending. The first thing I saw is the tail section of the DC-4 and that view made me take a few steps back. I kind of knew what the site looked like from the different pictures in the books I had read about the crash, but being there myself was something completely different. I cannot describe the feeling I had when standing there up close with a piece of tragic history of Belgian commercial aviation. I felt like being thrown back 68 years being one of the survivors. My guide had warned me for these emotions and he had told me the night before that the confrontation with the wreckage could be intense.

A second shock was just a few steps away when we arrived at the cemetery where the 24 passengers who were killed in the crash were buried. My guide told me – and I think I have read it somewhere – that they had exhumed two bodies and had brought them to Belgium for a reburial. It was a very modest cemetery. Every victim’s grave had a white painted wooden cross with a nametag. Most of them were Roman Catholic crosses, but some of them were Celtic and Jewish. The feeling I got around this burial ground was quite indescribable actually. It was one of peace and serenity, that was not only limited to the cemetery, but expanded over the entire site. At the same time you could feel the pain and suffering the people must have experienced 68 years ago. What did the survivors think right after the crash? The period between the crash and the first drop of emergency supplies must have been very distressing for them, especially because they did not know if they were going to be found and rescued. I took pictures of several graves. There were the graves of the wife and daughter of Gilbert Perier, of the flight attendant Jeanne Bruylant as well as the graves of the captain, Jean Ester and the passengers who did not survive the crash. Unfortunately some of the nametags had become unreadable.

The wreckage of the airplane still lay on the same spot where it crashed on that fatal morning on September 18th 1946. You could not tell anymore where the cockpit used to be, because that part was destroyed, probably by the fire. The tail section was separated from the rest of the fuselage, but the rest of the wreckage had been preserved pretty well. The vicinity of the plane was literally covered with debris. The landing gear was clearly visible in the wings and it was obvious that it had still been retracted at the moment of impact.

The nacelle of the outer engine in the portside wing was still visible. In front of the inner engine I noticed a part that looked like the cylinders of the Twin Wasp engine. I found the same engine parts near the outer engine on the portside and near the landing gear of the starboard wing. I could only find three of the four engines. When I walked around the port wing, I noticed the flaps. They were still attached to the wing and mechanism to move, deploy and retract them was clearly visible and in good shape.
On the vertical stabiliser only the contours of the Sabena logo were still visible. Time and weather had caused the colours to fade away over the years, but I could still read the name Sabena. On the fuselage however the blue cheatline and part of the registration were still visible. The letters BG were still very well readable on both sides of the fuselage.

My guide thought that there was more debris in the woods south of the crash site, where the plane had started to hit the trees. In 1946 the rescue workers had never searched that area. Back home, I have looked up the location of the crash on Google Maps, but because of the density of the forest it is impossible to say whether there is some debris in that area.

At the site the mosquitoes and other bugs were everywhere and once they had found you they would eat you alive. We had been there for more than an hour and a half and we were getting hungry. It was already after 12 p.m. anyway. We walked back to place where we had parked our ATV’s and from there we drove to the river. My guide said I should follow him into the river and we stopped on a dry spot in the middle of the river. ‘Let’s have lunch!’ he said and he started unpacking his backpack. A portable stove, a frying pan, vegetable oil, a bag with flower and a bag with two pieces of cod and ten scallops. I could not believe my eyes. Then he pulled out plates, cutlery, bread, mayonnaise, slices of ham and turkey. He started to coat the fish and scallops with flower and then fried the seafood. I must say it was delicious. There were spices in the flower that gave it a pink colour, but Ed immediately told me not to ask for the recipe, because that was a family secret. After lunch we drove back to the car and from there we drove back to Gander.

My guide had managed to arrange a meeting with Frank Tibbo. We drove to the hotel to pick up my book. I had told Leen that we were on our way and she was waiting outside the hotel with my book. It was only a short drive to the house of Frank. He signed my book and asked me what I thought of the site. After that we talked about aviation in general. This was really a beautiful end of a very intense but exhausting day.

When we arrived back at the hotel, my guide pulled a little plastic bag out of his pocket. He told me to take that to Belgium. It would be back home. He also said to treat it with respect. When I opened the bag, I found a brass lock and hinge of a suitcase. My guide explained that he had picked it up at the crash site when he was 10 years old. He thought that, after 40 years, it was time to send the lock back home. When I returned home, I framed the lock and it got a special place in my Sabena collection.

I am very happy that I got the chance to visit the site as it is very hard to get permission to visit the site. I want to thank everybody who made it possible.

Text: Tom Bergen (editor: Leen Van den Panhuyzen)

Sources
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Pacco, J. (2012). Douglas DC.4/C.54 "Skymaster". In J. Pacco, De vliegtuigen van Sabena/Les avions de la Sabena (pp. 56-64). Aartselaar, België: J.P. Publications.
Tibbo, F. F. (1993-2005). Charlie Baker George. St. Martin-in-the-woods & the story of Sabena OOCBG. Jesperson Publishing.
Vanderlinden, G. (sd). Official re-opening SDW airfield + remember DC-4 OO-CBG. Opgehaald van Ghent, Sint-Denijs-Westrem Airfield: http://guy-vanderlinden.com/history/index.html#bv000073