THE TRAGIC CRASH OF A WW-2 BOMBER IN A MANOTICK FARM FIELD
After World War Two ended in 1945, many of the aircraft that were in service moved on to other roles in the 1950s. This included the North American B-25 Mitchell, an American medium bomber that was introduced in 1941 and used by many Allied air forces during the war. The B-25 served in every theatre of World War II, and many remained in service in the post-war period.
One such B-25 was number 5215 in service with the Central Experimental and Proving Establishment, or CEPE, which was formed in 1951 by amalgamating Ottawa operations at Rockcliffe, the Winter Experimental Establishment in Edmonton, and the R.C.A.F. (National Research Council) Unit in Arnprior. Headquarters of CEPE were at Rockcliffe in Ottawa, with detachments at several sites across Canada. In 1957 CEPE was moved to RCAF Station Uplands also in Ottawa, a move necessitated by the longer runways required for testing new jet aircraft.
The CEPE tested captured German rocket planes like the Messerschmitt 163 KOMET in Arnprior which was covered in a previous article here. It would be in the same year that the CEPE was moved to Uplands that a tragic and still unsolved crash killed 8 people aboard the B-25J in Manotick, Ontario.
On March 1st, 1957 B-25J 5215 that had been modified to carry passengers instead bombs was completing a flight from Churchill, Manitoba to Ottawa with a fuel stop in North Bay, ON. Previously, the aircraft was part of the United States Air Force, built in 1944 during World War 2 with serial number 44-30485. Received from the USAF at Mobile, Alabama it went into storage with Training Command at RCAF Station Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in December of 1951. It then went to Advanced Flying School
at Saskatoon in January 1952, then to North West Industries in Edmonton, Alberta for modifications in 1952/53. The modifications made included avionics upgrades but there is no mention of engine modifications that may have led to its demise.
With bad weather engulfing the Ottawa area that night, the B-25 was advised to land at Uplands instead of Rockcliffe. As the plane made its descent to land at Uplands, it suddenly and unexpectedly exploded in mid-air, with a blinding white light flashing over the small village of Manotick southwest of Uplands airfield.
Witnesses in Manotick said that the plane was sputtering and then in blinding flash, exploded in mid-air, hurtling to the ground and exploding in a second fireball that rained aircraft fragments throughout the farm field where the tragedy occurred. Eight people aboard died that fateful night in 1957, including Air Vice Marshal Robert Ripley, Commander of the Air Material Command. Also lost that night in the explosion were:
RCAF Leading Aircraftman Kenneth Oliver Doerksen
RCAF Wing Commander James Garvin Easson DFC
RCAF Corporal Ronald Wesley Faulkner
RCAF Leading Aircraftman Joseph Maurice Gauthier
RCAF Wing Commander Walter Sherwood Johnson
RCAF Flight Lieutenant John Douglas Mawson DFC
Lt. Commander Henry F. Utting, Naval Testing Detachment
The aircraft explosion sent wreckage across the farm field of Thomas Watts, whose field was on Bankfield Road across from the Rona that is there now. The violent force of the explosion sent parts flying into the powerlines of Manotick causing a brief power outage, but of the utmost macabre was the fact that the body parts of the crew members were found all throughout the farm field and in the trees along the nearby creek.
The flaming wreckage set fire to the trees and soon RCAF officials arrived to contain the chaotic scene. Plane parts were imbedded into tree trunks, the creek bed strewn with wreckage. Investigators into the crash could not determine the cause of the tragic explosion, and it is not known to this day why it exploded into a ball of white light on approach to Uplands Air Base.
WHAT’S LEFT?
Sixty eight years after the tragedy, nothing marks the spot where eight men lost their lives, no plaque or any indication of what exploded over Bankfield Road that fateful night. A quick Google Maps search reveals the exact location of the crash site, but does anything remain from the B-25 bomber in the ground or in the creek where it happened?
A search and sweep with a metal dectector might turn up pieces of the plane and other relics of this lost aircraft. A quick walk around the site definitely provided an assessment of the dense wooded area and creek where the aircraft wreckage was said to have crashed.
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
Without permission from the land owner whose property may contain lost wreckage from the B-25 bomber, it will be difficult to venture forth with a metal detector to see what, if anything, lies buried in the ground from this crash. With the 70th anniversary of the tragic incident approaching in 2027, it might be time to now pursue possible further investigation, or at least get the ball rolling on a commemorative plaque possibly being placed nearby as a memorial to the eight souls that perished that terrible night in 1957.
I would like to call upon the City Of Ottawa, the RCAF, The Local Manotick Brach of the Legion and maybe the Canada Air and Space Museum to assist in an investigation to recover and respectfully remember the B-25 crew lost that night. I would also like to advise the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum that operates a flying condition B-25J to possibly consider doing a commemorative flypast over the site in 2027 to mark the 70th anniversary of what I would call the….Mayhem Over Manotick.
Andrew King, April 2025
SOURCES:
https://asn.flightsafety.org/wikibase/170117
https://caspir.warplane.com/personnel/unit-search/p/600017105
https://www.silverhawkauthor.com/post/canadian-warplanes-3-north-american-b-25-mitchell
GOOGLE MAPS
OTTAWA REWIND 