SUMMERSIDE – It was a normal Tuesday for George Dalton as he worked at the Canadian Forces base hospital in Edmonton, Alta., until the alarm he dreaded most blared through the halls.
There had been an accident on the base.
The red phone on his desk started to ring. As he reached for it, he looked up towards the window. Dalton could see the smoke circling in the sky from where the plane had gone down.
“A C-130 Hercules transport plane had crashed.”
Two planes were scheduled to depart Thursday, Nov. 16, 1982. One was on a training exercise with seven people on board and the other was carrying about 50 people on an outbound flight, said the retired Canadian Forces medical service physical assistant.
After answering the phone, Dalton’s first thought - “My god, is it the one with 50 people on board?”
Fortunately, it wasn’t, but tragically it was the other plane that had crashed, killing all seven men on board.
Thirty-six years later the memory of the tragedy plays on repeat in Dalton’s mind.
The Summerside resident suffers from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) caused by 29 years with the Canadian Forces, and the plane crash in 1982 is one of the many tragedies he remembers clearly.
As for the last few weeks Dalton has been on edge after the tragedy that happened in Saskatchewan on April 6 with the Humboldt Broncos hockey team.
“It made me think of past experiences and caused flashbacks.”
After hearing of the accident involving the Broncos bus, the memories of the Forces plane tragedy came flooding back. Next thing he knew, he was on Google looking up the plane crash from ‘82.
“I haven’t searched the crash since the event happened.”
It’s hard to overcome tragedies such as the Humboldt accident, so to the families, friends and players who are grieving, Dalton advises to lean on each other for support.
“Your friends and family in life are often your caregivers. Be there for each other.”
There are excellent grief programs in most communities, said Dalton.
“Sometimes it’s too easy to say ‘I’m OK, I can handle it,’ but the day you don’t feel like going to a meeting or in public, go. Keep lines of communication in your family open, because everyone will feel different during this time.”
