Date:	Saturday 29 June 1946
Time:	day
Type:	Gloster Meteor Mk III
Owner/operator:	Turbo Research Co/Winter Experimental Establishment
Registration:	EE311
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Helenbar Lake, Algona, Mississagi Provincial Park, Ontario -   Canada
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RCAF Station Edmonton, AB
Destination airport:	RCAF Station Hamilton, ON

Narrative:
Meteor F III EE311: To 52 MU RAF Pengam Moors, Cardiff, South Glamorgan 13 June 1945. To 76 MU RAF Wroughton, Wiltshire 22 June 1945 for packing and crating for shipment overseas. Shipped from Liverpool on the SS "Grey County" 4 July 1945 to Montreal for trials by Turbo Research Co. and WEE

EE311 had been assigned to the RCAF Test and Development Establishment on 28 September 1945 and later to the Winter Experimental Establishment (WEE) at RCAF Station Namao, Alberta, Jan-1946. During a transit flight from Namao to RCAF Station Hamilton, Ontario on 29 June 1946, the pilot experienced poor weather and a fuel transfer problem from an external belly tank. Having run out of fuel, the pilot, Lt. William "Hugh" MacKenzie, was forced to ditch the aircraft in Helenbar Lake, approximately 14 miles north of the community of Ellitot Lake in Northern Ontario. The pilot survived the ditching, but stayed near the aircraft for 26 days awaiting rescue.

He was not helped by the official view, on 15 July 1946, that he had been declared "missing, presumed killed" after a search effort had found nothing. The Winter Experimental Test Establishment, noted on July 15 in their official diary: “Committee of Adjustment appointed to deal with the effects and affairs of Flight Lieutenant McKenzie.”

On 23 July 1946, after staying with the plane as he had been told, a rain and hail storm doused the fire he had managed to maintain, so he had to head out on his own and arrange his own self-rescue.

On the 25 July 1946, MacKenzie heard an outboard motor boat and hiked a quarter mile over to the nearby Semiwite Lake where he came across a fisherman and was taken to Laurentian Lodge on Flack Lake, about 20 miles north of what is now the city of Elliot Lake. Helenbar Lake is quite shallow and the Meteor was recovered some six weeks later in remarkably good condition, however the aircraft was written off.

Subsequent history of Meteor EE311:
7 August 1946: A salvage team arrived from CFB Trenton.
9 August 1946: Additional salvage personnel arrived.
30 August 1946: Transported by ground. Two engines arrived in CFB Trenton by truck from Sudbury.
15 September 1946: Transported by ground. The airframe arrived in CFB Trenton by truck from Sudbury.

Note: There is great confusion amongst publications and websites into which lake the Meteor EE311 ditched. The correct name and spelling of the lake is Helenbar Lake. Several references identify the lake as Helen Bar Lake, but that is an incorrect spelling. It would appear that Helen Bar Lake has morphed into Helen Bay Lake in numerous other references. There is no Helen Bay Lake in Ontario. The MacKenzie Hiking Trail around the Mississagi Ontario Provincial Park, which contains Helenbar and Semiwite Lakes, is named after the pilot for his resourcefulness and determination in surviving for 26 days in the wilds of Northern Ontario.

1. Sixty Years, The RCAF and CF Air Command 1924-1984 (Pg 223)
2. The Avro CF-100, Larry Milberry (Pg 21-23)
3. Canadian Military Aircraft, Serials & Photographs, J.A. Griffin
4. Halley, James J (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents. Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.65 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
5. Final Landings: A Summary of RAF Aircraft and Combat Losses 1946 to 1949 by Colin Cummings p.173
6. Royal Air Force Aircraft EA100-EZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1988 p 19)
http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=54478
7. http://www.ontarioparks.com/parksblog/mississagi-a-hikers-paradise/
8. https://legionmagazine.com/en/2010/02/the-roar-of-the-meteor-air-force-part-37/
9. [Photos of wreckage]: https://www.aerialvisuals.ca/AirframeDossier.php?Serial=144798
10. "RAF Write-offs 1946": Air Britain Aeromilitaria 1979 p.100: https://air-britain.com/pdfs/aeromilitaria/Aeromilitaria_1979.pdf
11. Air Britain Aeromilitaria Summer 2009: https://air-britain.com/pdfs/aeromilitaria/Aeromilitaria_2009.pdf p.72
12. https://www.silverhawkauthor.com/post/canadian-warplanes-6-jets-gloster-meteor
13. https://legionmagazine.com/en/the-roar-of-the-meteor-air-force-part-37/
14. https://www.ontarioparks.com/parksblog/meteor-in-helenbar-lake/
15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississagi_Provincial_Park#History

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
07-Aug-2016 15:26	yukonjack	Added
25-Jan-2018 19:24	TB	Updated [Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
20-Jun-2023 00:04	Dr. John Smith	Updated [[Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]]