At 10:02 a.m. on Thursday,
April 8, 1954 a Royal
Canadian Air Force Harvard
trainer collided with a Trans-
Canada Air Lines North Star
passenger plane in the skies
over Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan,
scattering wreckage and
debris over a three-mile
radius in the city’s

northeast end. One of the
North Star’s engines landed
on Moose Jaw’s main street.
The fuselage crashed into the
house at 1324 Third Avenue
North East, missing Ross
Public School and the 360
students inside by only 166
yards.
   Thirty-seven people died

in the mid-air collision:
RCAF training pilot Thomas
Andrew Thorrat, 31 passengers
and four TCA crew members on
board the North Star and one
Moose Jaw citizen, Mrs.
Martha Hadwen.
   On the ground provincial,
military and civic officials
worked side by side with

civilian volunteers to put
out fires, collect bodies,
locate evidence, control the
gathering crowd and deliver
the terrible news to families
of the victims.
   Despite three detailed
investigations, no
responsibility for the
accident was ever determined.