Heading 1

TCA 810

810 to TCA RO: “We just reached 19,500, looks like we had a fire number 2 engine, we shut number 2 engine down, now requesting a descent clearance back to Vancouver and via Cultus Lake Abbotsford, go ahead.” 

​

These words between Trans Canada Air lines’ North Star aircraft Flight 810 and the company dispatch center on December 9th.,1956 set in motion a chain of events that became the most tragic air disaster of all time for Canada’s national airline.

Like all Canadians, author-publisher, Rien van Tilborg, was caught up in the sequence of events of what turned out to be five months of searching for the aircraft with its 62 passengers and crew. A resident of Abbotsford, B.C., the very center of the search area, Tilborg followed the tragic drama unfolding from the pages of both Vancouver newspapers and like every Canadian during those grim days was asking, 'how could an airliner in constant contact with Vancouver ATC, known to be flying a designated airway inbound to YVR, suddenly disappear and not be found for five months?' Tilborg made a lifetime commitment to find out the answers and has written what I consider and I’m sure you will agree to be the definitive account of an air disaster ever published. I had the doubtful pleasure of helping to design this very handsome hardcover book, and possible like you, at the outset asked, 'why now— so many years later?’ The answer unfolded as the book took shape. I recommend it highly as a piece of Canadian aviation history that belongs on the book shelves of aviators and all those of us who follow the compelling events of this challenging industry.