Lancaster KB999 “Malton Mike” Crash Wreck

[Warbird Kid]

Was researching and found this Lancaster apparently still up there.
http://www.dunrobincastle.com/Nose_Art/Stories/Lancaster_KB999_Part2.htm

Kind of like the Canadian Kee Bird, except this one wont be flown out. Judging from the picture, it looks pretty intact all things considered.


Does anyone have any further info on it's condition today? Any recent pictures?

Last edited by Warbird Kid on Tue Apr 30, 2019 5:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Jerry O'Neill]

Too bad Google Earth isn't higher resolution up in those parts!!!
Seems like if it's accessible, which to a degree (and with money!) everything is, somebody would go after it!
Jerry

[peter]

No longer recoverable...

[Martin80]

I asked about this aircraft many years ago on the old warbirds worldwide boards. Apparently the ice rolled KB999 into a ball such a shame. I'm sure though thd data plate could be straightened out and we all know with enough money that's all that's needed. A project for Jerry Yagen, where else can he get a Lancaster?

[peter]

Jerry should by the one from kermit weeks...

[Richard Woods]

I still don't believe the ice rolled it into a ball. A Lanc is too strong for that, more so with thin ice.

There's the remains of a Lanc in a lake near Pennemunde and it freezes every year. Its still recognisable as a Lanc. Teh Lancastrian "Star Dust" that is just recently emerging from a glacier. Then there's the B17 that was recovered from a river in Labrador, which had frozen over regularly. B17's under 350ft of icecap where the fuselage has been crushed but the wings are okay.

I reckon it got pushed off the sand bar into deeper water and now the algae in the lake has turned it a really nice shade of green. The Culture, Language, Elders and Youth department of Nunavut approved a permit for someone to go look for it a few years back, so maybe KB999 is not a lost cause yet.

[Dan Jones]

I used to have a pretty close connection with this airplane and know the country that it's in pretty well. The ice over there regularly gets to 8 feet plus, and the lakes around there are ofter pretty shallow. It DID survive intact for a long, long time. "Hercrat" who posts here pretty regularly saw it looking pretty much intact in the 'seventies but since then I've seen photographs shot from an air force Aurora patrol aircraft that shows a Lancaster mainwheel washed up on shore - not good news for the rest of the airframe. Underwater in the same picture you can see a submerged "wad" of something. But I'm sure the dataplate is still there! The title to the aircraft is currently with the WCAM in Winnipeg.

[peter]

That is the same story I heard from someone that actually orbited the lake.. A mainwheel washed up o nshore and the rest was crushed and sank... Moreimportantly would be to recover the york that is in a lake up north somewhere...

[Dan Jones]

I spent a couple of days over there with a Twin Otter on big tires about fifteen years ago. I had big plans on salvaging that mainwheel and getting pictures of the "lump" but the whole time I was there the weather was about a hundred feet and a mile in low cloud and murk. I looked but I couldn't find it.

[Dan Jones]

That is the same story I heard from someone that actually orbited the lake.. A mainwheel washed up o nshore and the rest was crushed and sank... Moreimportantly would be to recover the york that is in a lake up north somewhere...

There's most of a York on the west side of Hall Lake, about twenty miles from Hall Beach, Peter. I've landed beside it. Folklore has one of it's engines used in the restoration of certain Canadian Hurricane in the 'sixties.

[Warbird Kid]

Pictures of any of these other wrecks please!

[Dan Jones]

The Wix Member Area used to have my York pictures but it seems to be gone now.

[peter]

Yes the engines and props were salvaged I should say some of the props as two wre still there at the york.. Long term plans are for the recovery of that airframe one day..

[WallyB]

Several Yorks crashed in Canada; there may still be some wreckage at the remote locations.
from ASN

11-APR-1955 Avro 685 York C.1 CF-HMZ Associated Airways Yellowknife ...
12-APR-1955 Avro 685 York C.1 CF-HMX Arctic Wings Hall Lake, NU
26-MAY-1955 Avro 685 York C.1 CF-HMY Associated Airways near Edmonton
29-SEP-1955 Avro 685 York C.1 CF-HMV Associated Airways near Beaverlodge, SK
24-JAN-1956 Avro 685 York C.1 CF-HMU Maritime Central Airways Kuujjuaq
13-SEP-1956 Avro 685 York C.1 CF-HFP Pacific Western Cape Perry, NU
13-SEP-1956 Avro 685 York C.1 CF-HFQ TransAir Fox, MB
26-SEP-1956 Avro 685 York C.1 CF-HMW Maritime Central Airways near Kuujjuaq, QC
08-JAN-1957 Avro 685 York C.1 CF-HIQ TransAir near Rankin Inlet

The York was a significant airplane in postwar Canadian aviation and it's a pity none survived.

(13 Sep 1956 was a Thursday)

Last edited by WallyB on Mon Nov 12, 2012 1:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[hercrat]

Avro York CF-HMX and the recovery of it's engines is the subject of the upcoming issue CAHS Journal. Later this week I will see if I can publish pics of what is left of the remaining York wrecks in Canada.