A ceremony set for 12:12 p.m. Saturday at Hopkinsville’s Gander Memorial Park will mark the 35th anniversary of the Gander, Newfoundland, jet crash that killed 248 passengers and eight crew members bound for Fort Campbell.
The DC-8 jetliner carried Fort Campbell soldiers who headed home for the Christmas holiday after a six-month deployment to the Sinai. The jet crashed and burned in a forest at the edge of Gander Lake about 3,000 feet from the end of the Gander International Airport runway. There were no survivors.
The jet had stopped to refuel at Gander. When it was time to depart, many of the soldiers returned to the aircraft carrying children’s Christmas presents they had bought in the Gander airport’s gift store. Army families at Fort Campbell and the surrounding civilian communities were preparing to meet the soldiers at Campbell Army Airfield when news broke that morning of the crash.
The Canadian Aviation Safety Board ruled that ice on the jet’s wings was the probable cause of the crash. But four of the board’s nine members issued a dissenting opinion that said an explosion of unknown origin was the more likely cause.
In the days following the crash, news media and national leaders from across the country came to Fort Campbell. President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan were among dignitaries who met with families of the soldiers on post.
A livestream of the Hopkinsville ceremony will be available on Christian County Chamber of Commerce Military Affairs Committee’s Facebook page.
The memorial park on Fort Campbell Boulevard at the Pennyrile Parkway has limited parking. The livestream will make it possible for more people to see the ceremony without having to be in a large gathering where some would risk being exposed to the coronavirus.
- RELATED: Hopkinsville sculptor created works for two memorials honoring soldiers who died in Gander crash
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
