Trans-Canada Airway System (Tca): Airmail March 1, 1939

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on a now abandoned portion of the Canadian National Railway main line originally constructed as the National Transcontinental Railway main line between the railway points of Lynx to the west and Blanche to the east, 4 kilometres (2 mi) west of where the line crossed the Kenogami River. It is also on Ogahalla Creek, part of the James Bay drainage basin, which flows via the Atikasibi River to the Kenogami River.

A now abandoned airfield, created by the Department of National Defence in the mid-1930s in part using 22,632 person-days of unemployment relief labour, lies to the north of the place. A Frontier College instructor was located at the construction camp. The airfield became part of a string of emergency landing sites for Trans-Canada Air Lines (today Air Canada) to support their transcontinental flight operations.

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A TCA schedule dated Nov 1,1939 listed a strange sounding airport "WAGAMING", that most people wouldn't have heard of yet it was a stop on the Trans Continental route.

Where is it - about halfway between Winnipeg and Kapuskasing on the CNR rail line. First staffed with TCA employees in 1939 as it became an essential fuel stop on the trans-Canada route of TCA. By 1940, the airport name was changed to Armstrong, the little railroad town 8 miles west of the airport. It was not shown on later timetables so passengers were always surprised when they had to buckle up for a landing on this route. Flight #1 westbound dep at 0320 and Flight #2 Eastbound dep at 0641. I guess it was all midnight shifts for the staff. By 1945 the staff had increased to 12 but by Ju1 1947, with the newer aircraft, the station was closed down.

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AIRLINER WRECKED OUTSIDE ARMSTRONG.
Twelve persons, nine of them passengers and three crew members, were killed early Thursday morning when a Winnipeg-bound T.C.A. airliner crashed in the dense bush country one mile south of Armstrong, Ont. Six of the dead were Winnipeg residents. The crash came shortly after 3:47 a.m., as the plane attempted an emergency landing at the Armstrong airport. It was one of the worst aviation tragedies in Canadian history, and the first involving Trans-Canada Airlines. The dead are:

Captain W. E. TWISS, Winnipeg, formerly of Vancouver.
First Officer C. E. LLOYD, Winnipeg, formerly of Ottawa.
MISS M. G. MAYNE, stewardess, Winnipeg.
Passengers:
MRS. R. D. CARTER, Vancouver.
E. MALONE, Toronto.
F. W. F. GASSTON, Hudson's Bay Company, Winnipeg.
H. MOSS, Toronto.
Prof. ROBERT McQUEEN, Winnipeg.
Lt. Cmdr. H. H. HARLOWE, Ottawa.
E. C. MANNING, Victoria.
F. J. FREER, Great-West Life Assurance Company, Winnipeg.
I. E. DAVIDSON, Vancouver.

Ground crews at Armstrong, who waited in vain for the big plane to come into the field after its radio message saying it was landing, raised the alarm shortly after 4 a.m., and Air Line officials in Winnipeg were notified immediately.

Carrying D. A. Colyer, T.C.A. vice-president; R. F. GEORGE, superintendent of flight operation; H. H. KENYON, assistant to the general superintendent, and E. W. STULL, assistant superintendent of maintenance, the rescue plane left Stevenson field at 4:45 a.m. They arrived at Armstrong at 7:25 a.m.

Two hours later, after flying in widening circles about the air field, the wreckage was spotted. The plane had apparently overshot its mark and landed one mile south of the north-south runway of the field. Headed by a doctor and Red Cross nurses, a rescue party cut its way slowly through the deep snow to the site to find all aboard the plane dead. An immediate investigation has been ordered and an inquest will open at Armstrong this evening. Earlier in the day, department of transport officials had ruled out the possibility of engine trouble.

The plane left North Bay at 10:15 p.m. and arrived at Armstrong on schedule. It had sufficient gas for three more hours' flying at this point. The only warning received by the Armstrong airport officials was Capt. TWISS' brief message he was coming in to land. After that there was silence and airmen in the city speculated the plane's radio may have gone dead after its last contact.

While the wild terrain of northern and northwestern Ontario is better suited for ski and float equipped planes, T.C.A. has minimized this hazard by establishing a string of emergency bases.....strung along T.C.A.'s trans-continental route.
The national air lines operations sheet shows a clean record since inauguration of a trans-continental passenger service, April 1, 1939. Guided by experienced fliers and numerous radio operators across the country, the big silver passenger planes have a perfect score of no crack-ups since then.

On April 1, 1940, T.C.A. marked its first year of operating Montreal-Toronto-Vancouver scheduled flights. Its safety record up to that time paralleled that of United States Airlines which a few days before had concluded a year of operations without fatalities.
Opening the second year of the trans-continental route, T.C.A. doubled its service with two planes a day flying each way. Previously, only one plane a day each way made the flights.

Flying conditions at Armstrong were considered generally good when the crash took place with a ceiling of 1,200 feet and a visibility of one mile and a half. Light snow was falling.

First word of the disaster reached the city as Winnipeggers went to work. Then there was a long silence, broken with rumors of the plane reported first at Savant Lake, 70 miles east of Armstrong, followed by another that five persons had died. It was not untill noon that air line officials finally confirmed that rescue parties had found all aboard the 14-passenger Lockheed dead.