By Canadian Press

Item from 1963 rescue of pair who survived for 49 days donated to Yukon museum

Nov 7, 2018 | 10:45 AM

WHITEHORSE — A unique artifact linked to a harrowing tale of survival is now on display at the Yukon Transportation Museum in Whitehorse.

Fabric bearing the registration numbers of a plane that crashed in Yukon in 1963 has been donated to the museum by the family of the pilot who led the rescue of the plane’s two passengers, Ralph Flores and Helen Klaben.

The rescue is remarkable because the pair had no emergency supplies, little food, and the mid-winter temperatures had fallen to sub-zero levels, yet they were still alive 49 days later when a passing plane spotted their SOS in the snow.

Chuck Hamilton was flying the plane that spotted the rescue signal and returned with a team that eventually found the wrecked aircraft as well as the barely-alive passengers who’d suffered broken bones, frostbite and near starvation.

Hamilton kept the fabric printed with the registration numbers of the crashed plane, but he died earlier this year so the family decided to donate it to the museum. 

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Aviation historian Bob Cameron says it is now displayed along with other items recovered from the crash site, including parts of the plane and the remains of two cans of sardines Flores and Klaben shared during their frigid ordeal.

“All they had when they found themselves in this plight … was two cans of sardines, two cans of fruit cocktail and a tube of toothpaste,” Cameron says.

A team returned to the crash site in 1998 to recover the cans and other remnants in order to create the display memorializing the amazing survival story. (CKRW)

The Canadian Press