Otter 41 was delivered to
Wideroes Flyveselskap & Polarfly A/S of Norway on 21st June 1954 registered
LN-SUV. It was the second Otter to be allocated this registration, the first
having been Otter number 24, which had been shipped to Norway in a crate the
previous year, but was damaged in transit and returned to DHC. After repair,
it had been sold to another customer. The paint shop records indicate that
number 41 entered the paint shop at Downsview on 25th May 1954 and received
“two coats of green dulux, made up from blue-green industrial finish dulux
mixed with yellow, black and white until it came close to the green lacquer
which had been used on number 24”. To make sure that the new Otter was not
damaged in transit, Otter 41 was delivered in wheel-plane configuration and
flown across the Atlantic by a Wideroe crew. When it arrived at its new base
at Bodo in northern Norway, it was put on floats and became the first Otter
to enter service with Wideroe.
Wideroes had been formed in February 1934 and pioneered services to the
isolated communities of northern Norway. The Otter was ideal for the
company's operations. Initially LN-SUV operated alongside a fleet of Norduyn
Norsemen, but these were gradually replaced as further Otters were
delivered. Three more Otters were acquired new from DHC (LN-BDD, LN-BFD and
LN-BIB) as well as two (LN-FAE and LN-LMM) from the Royal Norwegian Air
Force, when the military surplussed its Otters. All the Wideroe Otters were
painted in an attractive 'spartan green' colour scheme. The company was
renamed Wideroes Flyveselskap A/S in 1959.
The Otters operated on the Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) scheduled
network north of Bodo, which Wideroes flew under charter to SAS, and used SK
flight numbers. The 1957 SAS timetable shows flight SK356 between Sorreisa
and Tromso seaplane base; SK354 continuing on to Alta and Hammerfest.
Flights SK322 and 324 operated between Bodo and Harstad. It was also
possible to fly on a series of flights which linked all the other towns on
the network. SK340 departedNarvik at 0745 arriving Harstad 0810. The flight
continued as SK326 departing Harstad at 0830 hours, arriving Tromso seaplane
base 0920. It then continued on as SK352 departing Tromso 0940, transitting
Alta 1055.1105, transitting Hammerfest 1135/1215; transitting Kirkenes
1415/1430, to arrive at Vadso on Norway's northern coast, across the fjord
from the Soviet Union, at 1450 hours. The reciprocal flight departed Vadso
at 0825 and these flights operated each weekday, total flying time 5 hours
20 minutes. Slightly different flights appeared in the 1964 SAS timetable,
using Wideroe's own WI flight designator.
In addition to these scheduled services, the Otters operated charters,
freight flights and ambulance services when required. The Otters were
float-equipped and all towns served were on the coast, permitting the Otters
to land on the fjords. The scheduled routes were flown seven and a half
months of the year. As the Otters were only capable of VFR operations, they
could not operate during the winter months. As the people in these isolated
communities were dependent on this air service to a considerable extent,
they became dissatisfied with the lack of a year-round service. As a result,
the Norwegian government decided to construct five STOL-ports on the
country's west coast, and year-round services commenced with a Twin Otter in
1968. Gradually Twin Otters took over from the Otters. On 1st January 1970,
Wideroes were taken over by Fred Olsen Airtransport and SAS, but continued
to operate under its own name. By that stage, one of the Otters had been
sold and two had crashed, but the remaining three Otters (LN-BDD, 'BIB and 'LMM)
continued in service after the take-over, until all three were sold to
Laurentian Air Services of Canada in October 1971.
To return to Otter 41, LN-SUV, it continued in service with Wideroes from
its delivery in June 1954 until it was damaged in an accident at Gravdal in
the Lofoten Islands on 26th May 1967. In the early hours of that day, the
Otter was dispatched from its base at Bodo on a medevac mission, to fly to
Gravdal Harbour some one hundred kilometres to the north-west, to pick up a
ten year old boy with a serious medical condition, and with an accompanying
nurse, fly him back to Bodo for transfer to a scheduled flight to Oslo,
which was to leave Bodo at 0500 hours. Normally this would have been a
single-pilot flight, but on this occasion the pilot invited a friend of his,
who was an airline pilot, to join him on the flight. At this time of the
year, there is almost 24 hours of daylight at this latitude, just north of
the Arctic Circle, with sunrise at 0201 hours. LN-SUV took off from Bodo at
0159 hours for the forty-five minute flight. The weather was fair, but some
strong wind gusts were expected on landing. Sea conditions were rough, with
waves of a metre high. The following is a summary from the report of the
Accident Investigation Board:
“Just after landing, the flying pilot said 'That wasn't too bad' and
applied power to taxy to the harbour. The accompanying pilot noticed the
flaps were still down and said 'Get the flaps up'. At the same time, the
aircraft veered 30 degrees to the right without any reaction from the pilot.
Looking across the cockpit, he saw the pilot sitting motionless with one
hand at the controls and the other at the throttle. The right float dug into
the sea and caused the right wingtip to strike the water. The aircraft
tipped over and came to rest half submerged. The accompanying pilot got out
of the cockpit on the right side and immediately went around to the main
left cabin door to make sure his friend also got out. However, the cabin was
rapidly filling with water and he had to evacuate back out through the same
door. Shortly after, he saw the pilot floating in the water about ten metres
from the aircraft. Despite efforts to resuscitate him at the local hospital,
the pilot died. It was later established that the pilot suffered from a
heart condition which had caused him to lose consciousness immediately after
touch down. This caused the aircraft to veer right and collide with a buoy
marking shallow water”.
The Otter was later raised and towed to Tromso. Some repairs were carried
out, but Wideroes decided not to return the aircraft to service, but to sell
it “as is, where is”. The purchaser was Lambair of The Pas, Manitoba.
Douglas Lamb and his father flew to Norway with the intention of flying the
Otter back to Canada. They found the aircraft “on floats, in one of Hitler's
submarine bunkers on the ocean side in Tromso”. The weather proved too bad
for a ferry flight and accordingly the Otter was packed into a crate and
shipped to Canada, arriving in Toronto. The Otter was re-assembled on the
dock, at Pier 51 in Toronto, and then taxied to Toronto Island Airport to
refuel. Marks CF-ANW were allocated and a ferry permit was issued on 16th
May 1969 for a flight from Toronto to Calgary. Doug Lamb flew the Otter,
first to The Pas, Manitoba although it was weathered-in at Wasaga Beach for
three days en route. He then set off from The Pas and after a six hour
flight landed on a small lake near Calgary, from where the Otter was taken
to Field Aviation at the Calgary Airport for its inspection, rebuild and
repaint into Lambair colours.
It was granted its Certificate of Airworthiness on 18th September 1969,
having at that stage 11,513 hours on the airframe. It was officially
registered to Lambair as CF-ANW on 27th November 1969 and entered service
with the company from its base at The Pas, Manitoba. Sadly, its period of
service was not all that long, for it met its end on 25th July 1971 at
Knight Lake in the Island Lake area of Northern Central Manitoba. As the
accident report summarises: “Climb; collided with trees; crashed and
burned; pilot and two passengers killed; exercised poor judgement; aircraft
destroyed”. It was Lambair's first fatality since the Lamb family
started aircraft operations in 1935, and a sad end to an historic Otter, the
first to have entered service in Europe.
History courtesy of Karl E Hayes from DHC-3
Otter: A History (2005)
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