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Padre Stephen Morris (right), joined by Dianne MacMillan, the daughter of
Squadron Leader Arthur MacMillan, and members of 22 Wing North Bay, presides
over a commemorative ceremony at the site where the Squadron Leader MacMillan
died when his aircraft crashed 60 years ago. RCAF/Corporal Joseph Morin Photo
On Friday, Sept. 12, 2014, members of 22 Wing North Bay, Ont., took part in a ceremony commemorating Squadron Leader Arthur MacMillan who was killed in an accident while flying a CF-100 Canuck fighter jet during a training mission on Dec. 31, 1954. The ceremony was held at the crash site.
Squadron Leader MacMillan was also a veteran of the Second World War and received Distinguished Flying Cross his service as a bomber pilot. On Dec. 31, 1954, he was training as an interceptor jet pilot with No. 3 All-Weather (Fighter) Operational Training Unit – the world’s leading interceptor pilot school – located at Royal Canadian Air Force Station North Bay.
While returning to the air base with his instructor, Flight Lieutenant Harold Mitchell, one of the aircraft’s two engines failed. The aircraft crashed six kilometres northeast of the North Bay airfield, near Widdifield Station Road, and disintegrated, killing both men instantly.
The gouge in the earth created by the crash can still be seen today, even though the area – which is private property – is now forested, according to a news article in the North Bay Nugget. It was open farmland when the crash occurred.
Ms Dianne MacMillan, Squadron Leader MacMillan’s daughter, travelled from her home in Wales, United Kingdom, to attend the ceremony. “This is a lovely place for my father’s spirit to be resting,” she said.
Squadron Leader MacMillan was born in Glasgow, Scotland. He emigrated with his family to Canada and enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in Winnipeg, Man., in June 1939. He is interred in the Aylmer Cemetery in Elgin County, Ontario.
“I have done many commemorative services yet I find the smaller, personal ones very special. There we were, a handful of us gathered around the crash site – a crater in the middle of a forest – to remember a father who died sixty years ago,” said Captain Stephen Morris, a chaplain at 22 Wing.
“It was a moment in time when the deceased was commemorated and the living was healed. It was truly an honor and a blessing to be part of that service.”
