Arrow Air Gander Crash, One of 25 Deadliest Aircraft Crashes in the Past 30 Years

248 U.S. Troops From the 101st Airborne Division
Arrow Air Flight 1285
Gander Airport, Newfoundland, Canada
December 12, 1985

Baum Hedlund represented the families of three soldiers killed in the December 12, 1985 Arrow Air Flight 1285 disaster.  The plane crashed shortly after it took off from Gander Airport in Newfoundland, Canada. The Army chartered the plane to carry U.S. service men from the 101st Airborne Division serving in Sinai to travel from Cairo to their home base in Fort Campbell, Kentucky.  It had stopped at the Gander Airport to refuel before heading to Kentucky. 

Arrow Air Flight 1285 Memorial -- Gander Lake, Newfoundland, CanadaMoments after take-off, the aircraft, a McDonnell Douglas DC-8-63CF jetliner, crashed nearly half a mile from the runway.  The aircraft burned for about four hours.  Inside were 248 passengers, all U.S. troops, and 8 crew members.  In total, 256 people were killed. There were no survivors. 

To this day, this tragic accident remains one of the 25 most deadly plane crashes in the last 30 years.  Of those 25 crashes, the  Arrow Air Flight 1285 crash remains one of three of which icing was determined to be a contributing factor.

A full investigation of the crash was conducted by The Canadian Aviation Safety Board (CASB).  The evidence gathered seemed to point investigators in two different directions.  In fact, the CASB was nearly divided in their conclusions on the cause of the deadly crash. 

Five of the nine members of the CASB believed that ice on the wings was the catalyst that set off the sequence of events leading to the deadly crash.  According to a Probable Cause statement issued and signed by the majority of the CASB, immediately after takeoff, the aircraft suffered from unexpectedly high drag and reduced lift, causing it to crash about 3,000 feet from the runway.  This, the CASB concluded, was most likely due to ice contamination on the wings of the aircraft.   Also contributing to the crash was a loss of thrust from the number four engine.

Four out of the nine members of the CASB, the minority, had a different conclusion.  They believed that the fire, which witnesses saw while the plane was still airborne, was possibly caused by a bomb that detonated during takeoff, causing the fire that brought about system failures resulting in the crash.  A minority report was issued detailing this analysis.