Grostenquin, France
Crash of F-86 Sabre 19265

Location of crash site - This aircraft experienced a flame-out at 5000 feet and crashed near Callendar, Ontario - killing the pilot, F/O WA Troke.

Details of crash - This RCAF F-86 Sabre was on a famil flight from North Bay, Ontario.

Internment - Kentville, NS.

Situation as of August 2002 - Unknown.

F-86 Sabre Jet Crashes Near Callander

When thirty-four year old Gordon Troke, who flew a spitfire in WWII, re-enlisted in the RCAF he was the oldest pilot in North Bay's 430 squadron of F86-E Sabre Jets. On Tuesday, January 24, 1952 Flying Officer Troke was flying his single-seat Sabre on a training flight over Lake Nipissing and heading toward Callander when his engine stalled and flamed out due to a failure in the fuel system. He lost altitude but got the plane going gain as he approached the Callander dock.

Captain "Mac" Mason was standing on the dock and noticed the plane was in trouble as it flew by. Three miles away, on Charles Champagne's farm (two miles from the Quint home) on Derland Road the plane, streaming black smoke, hurtled through the trees, hit a rocky hill, and plowed into a second hill. Charles Champagne and some of his neighbours, the Corbeils, found the pilot wrapped in his parachute, dead, a couple of hundred yards from the Champagne home. The recent photo (February 2002) shows Mr. Champagne with a piece of the plane's wing, which he recently recovered from the bush behind his home. Ten years after the crash, Mrs. Troke and her two teenage children came by the Champagne home one day, where she was directed to the crash site so they could see where the children's father had died.

Comments from Bob Cooper - There was a distinct similarity between Gordie's (Troke) death and that of Robbie Robertson who was killed in Grostenquin on 17 March 1955.

Gordie flamed out over Lake Nipissing and elected to ride it down to prevent possible loss of civilian life.

Robbie Robertson was flying with two other Sabres and when he flamed out at high altitude, his companions advised him to bail out. He decided to ride it down with the wing tips of the other two tucked in under his wings giving him support. They escorted him down to the fence. As he crossed the end of the runway his nose got too high and the compressor stalled freezing the controls. He slammed into the runway and burned.

Both of these pilors lost their lives in an attempt to prevent loss of life on the ground.