Date:	Thursday 15 February 1968
Time:
Type:	Aero Commander 680FL
Owner/operator:	Crown Aviation, Ontario, Canada.
Registration:	N6313U
MSN:	1365-39
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Other fatalities:	1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Greenland Icecap -   Greenland
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Ferry/positioning
Departure airport:
Destination airport:	Dye 3

Narrative:
The aircraft had been landed on the icecap on 27th February 1967. Previous salvage attempts had failed. A Canadian team flew into Sondrestrom in a DC-3 aircraft seeking to attempt to salvage the Aero Commander N6313U which had been on the icecap for a year.
They realised they couldnt land at DYE3 in their DC-3. They managed to get transported to DYE3 where they borrowed transportation.
The team were from Crown Aviation PO Box 385 Malton, Ontario, Canada and consisted of Mr Roland Spalding, from Montreal, (shown as owner of N6313U on the its history) , Garry Libbos, from Toronto, David Maclennon,from Montreal, an expert in aviation salvage and Mr Dennis Bannock, pilot.
The Crown team left DYE3 and headed out to N6313U.
Having located the aircraft, they dug it out of the ice and used heaters to thaw the frozen engines out prior to attempting to start them.
The aircraft was put on skis and Mr. Dennis Bannock flew the aircraft off the ice. The Crown team returned to DYE3 but found their colleague had not arrived in N6313U.
The 54th Air Rescue and Recovery Sq, Goose Bay AB and the three members of the Crown team set out to find Mr. Bannock and N6313U.
There are various reports on the outcome of the search. Some say no wreckage was found, others that a crash site was spotted from the air but the team could not locate it, one of a crash site being found, but no sign of Dennis Bannock.
It is puzzling that the team were supplied with their equipment from DYE3.
Canadian archive show the USAF tried to find the Crown team some time later in order to collect finance owed but were not traced. It appears that Crown Aviation was set up solely to salvage N6313U and after the crash disappeared.
The registration N6313U was cancelled on 16th November 1967 under advice to the Canadian authorities. A Canadian registration CF-WRR was issued.
The history of the aircraft shows the aircraft was dug out of the ice and snow, for ferry to the airstrip at Radar station DYE3, being one of the Greenland Dewline sites, then proceeding on to Sondre Stromfjord-Kangelussuaq, Greenland. The entry dated 15th February 1968 says simply Crashed, near Radar Station DYE2, Greenland. The last entry is 29th March 1968 says N6313U Cancelled, destroyed 15 Feb 1968, near Radar station DYE2, Greenland.
It seems that no crash investigation took place. The aircraft was registered in Canada so the NTSB did not record it, and although under jurisdiction of the Danish government no investigation or report appears to exist.-----------------------As I was mechanic an crewchief on the Sikorsky helicopter that rescued the downed ferrypilot GEORGES GROSSMEER on the inland ice i can supply with further details we went up to the DYE 3 station it was very cold up there in 9000 ft (minus 60 deg C.-- the mentioned date and was the same day attempting to pick up the downed pilot but was unable to pick him up due to heavy snowstorm on the site and the downed pilot told us that we should not try to land there because of no visibility(we was decending on radar altimeter) and we returned to DYE 3 it was very cold up there abt minus 60 deg C in 9000 ft so we got all kind of trouble by fueling the helicopter and keep our transmission warm so during the night time US AIRFORCE supplied us( by a C-130) which flew in with with fuel an a lot of heathers and when it took off again it flew out to the downed aircraft and with an snow tractor picked up the downed pilot but sadly under a JATO take off it broke the LH wing just outside engine NR 4, but by then we was able to fly out to pick up the entire party of abt 13 persons included the downed pilot.-----a year later the Canadian crew showed up in Sondrestromfjord and with them a pilot named Dennis Bannock which became a friend of mine I told him not to try to fly the aircraft out from the site because up there the drifting snow is wery fine grained like dust and it comes inn all places in an aircraft structure and is packing up in all compartments i told him to fit the skies on the landinggears and taxiing it to the DYE station it was only 60 NM in distance .----- but they obviously decided to fly it out the cause for the accident was to my point of wiev blocked controls as the powdersnow started to be a kind of solid when it started to kind of melting because heat from engine and cabin and also condensed water in fuel system and maybe loss of oil because of blocked cranckcase vent (frozen vapour)and maybe a whiteout in connection with an emergency landing if further information is needed .----i will be glad to be able to supply .----

Canadian archives, Danish newspaper Politiken articles, Newsheet Sondrestrom Sun.
As I already have made some comments on the description a couple of months ago I understand that there are some people which want some more information arround what happened on the site on GREENLAND inland ice and they are welcome to contact me on Email address: oz3yt@oerts.dk.----but I must inform that i had nothing to do with the attempt to salvage the Aero Commander but I can inform that the Canadian team was the second attemt to take out the dovned plane the first attempt was to my knowledge an english project which also crash landed a plane up there and I have been told that one person did not survive from that crash but I do not know for sure this party was operating from Iceland and took of from there and headed for Greenland and on the way to KULUSUK airfild they flew into the Aero Commanders place on the icecap just to have a look on it and obviously to me they had a "White out" during a low pass and they hit the ice cap and they crash landed on normal cruisespeed.----thats what I think happened. My background for my suggestions of what and how it happened are my many years of experience in arctic aviations rescue missions and I have also in 1980 and 81 taken an Hawker Siddeley 125 out from the southern part of the indlandsice and transported it to NARSSARSUAQ airport (BLUIE WEST ONE) assembled it and repaired it and delivered it to USA to it's homebase the REG was N1SS, but its an other story.----

Other occurrences involving this aircraft

27 February 1967

N6313U

Air Carrier Service Corp, Washington DC.

0

Greenland Ice Cap 6424N 4221W

sub

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
14-Mar-2008 03:36	KevinW	Added
14-Mar-2008 11:38	KevinW	Updated
09-Oct-2011 02:23	Anon.	Updated [Narrative]
23-Jan-2013 13:35	Anon.	Updated [Narrative]
28-Mar-2015 21:29	Anon.	Updated [Narrative]
20-Apr-2015 19:42	Anon.	Updated [Narrative]
23-Jun-2015 20:05	thom	Updated [Source]
29-Oct-2023 20:38	whiteshark	Updated [[Source]]
30-Oct-2023 10:32	whiteshark	Updated [[[Source]]]