'God was watching over us': Retired firefighter remembers fatal Argus crash

Twenty-one-year-old Gerard Ginson was at CFB Summerside's mess hall eating lunch on March 31, 1977, when he heard a 415 Squadron Argus was in trouble.

The military firefighter got up and headed to the fire hall where he volunteered to help a crew that was not his own.

It was a day he'd never forget.

Three people from a crew of 16 died when a plane crashed and burst into flames during an emergency landing.

"God was watching over us," said Ginson. "Otherwise, it would have been a lot worse."

The Argus was a long-range aircraft used in anti-submarine, sovereignty and rescue roles.

On the day of the crash, the Argus's crew was trying to save lives. They'd been dispatched to assist a Spanish trawler off the coast of Newfoundland that had caught fire. Five of the crew members of the Dianteiro died.

The Argus was called back and as it returned to Summerside, it lost power in one of its four engines.

Ginson and the other firefighters awaited the plane's arrival.

The landing conditions weren't ideal. It was foggy, rainy and windy.

As the Argus made its final approach, Ginson said the Argus hit a snowbank. The winds picked up and threw the plane off course.

"They missed the [control] tower," he said. "They missed the two hangars that are there — three and four hangar — and caught an ice-patrol aircraft …  and sheared off the tail of the aircraft."

The Argus continued down the taxiway with a ball of fire following it. It hit a roadway, then split open before coming to rest in some grass.

Ginson said if the Argus had hit the hangars, the death toll would have been much worse.