Nov 1, 20222 min read

Ended with a Crack-up in Canada

Lockheed Electra 10B, 1066, was delivered to John R. Brinkley, MD, in Del Rio, Texas, on September 3, 1936; the Electra was registered under the name of the pilot, G. A. MacDonald, registration NC16054.

After the start of World War II, Canada began a search for aircraft within the United States, NC16054 was sold to the Canadian Department of National Defense, registration CF-BRS, and was subsequently transferred to the RCAF on July 7, 1940, where the registration was changed to 7648. Electra 1066 served with the No. 13 (Operational Training) Squadron - based at RCAF Station Patricia Bay from May 1941 to June 1942; the Electra served with the RCAF until it was struck off on June 7, 1945, and transferred to the War Assets Corporation. (The War Assets Corp., was tasked with selling military equipment to civilian companies or individuals.)

Following the end of the war, the first owner after the RCAF was Maritime Central Airways, registration CF-BEH, according to some reports the aircraft was converted to a 10A by replacing the Wright R-975 engines with two Pratt & Whitney nine cylinder, 300 hp, R-985-SB Wasp Junior radials. (Other reports state this conversion wasn't done until the late 1950s.) After serving Maritime Central for almost five years, CF-BEH was sold to Dayton Airways Inc., where registration N16054 was assigned on January 1, 1949. From Dayton, the aircraft was sold in September 1954 to Stream Eze, Inc., South Bend, Indiana, and the following year to South Bend Tool and Die Co., also of South Bend, in March 1955. Three years later, March 1958, the aircraft was sold back to Stream Eze. It's at this point, according to differing reports, the aircraft was converted to a 10A, and not following the war.

Shortly after the new year, January 8, 1959, the Electra was damaged in a windstorm in Alaska; by March the following year, the aircraft had been sold to Monarch Airways, Dayton, OH.

August 15, 1960, while under charter from Munz Airways, Electra 1066 was arriving in Nome, Alaska, from Kotzebue, Alaska, with only one engine functioning. Upon landing, the aircraft ran off the runway into a ditch with nine passengers aboard; all aboard were uninjured - the aircraft was written off, damaged beyond repair.