On the evening of August 22, 1982, Ottawa’s airspace was particularly congested owing to a NATO summit hosted in the capital. As a result, both commercial and military traffic crowded the skies in narrow air corridors. At 19:08, Ottawa ATC instructed Quicksand Airways Flight 372, a Convair 880 inbound from London, to descend from 14,000 to 12,000 feet in preparation for its final approach to Ottawa International Airport. At the same time, Pipling Airlines Flight 146, a domestic Fokker F-28 Fellowship registered G-UIAS, had just departed Montreal en route to Thunder Bay and was cleared to climb to 13,000 feet. A radio miscommunication, complicated by simultaneous radio traffic and a partially garbled ATC transmission, led the Pipling crew to mistakenly level off at 12,000 feet—the same altitude Quicksand Airways was descending through. At 19:09:20 local time, as both aircraft converged over Carleton Place, Ontario, radar operators noticed the conflict but had no time to issue an effective warning. The Convair 880 struck the smaller Fokker F-28 from above, shearing off its tail section. G-UIAS broke apart midair. The Convair 880, heavily damaged, entered a steep uncontrolled dive and disintegrated before impact. All 156 people aboard both aircraft perished. 102 passengers + 8 crew on QW 372 42 passengers + 4 crew on PA 146 It remains one of the deadliest air disasters in Canadian history.
Credits: @Chessie-2101 (Chessie) @StrasburgRRFan (Lana) @k-barron (Manny) for the Fokker F-28 Fellowship @diveboberlover (Dive) for the Convair 880 Music: Hand Me Down World - The Guess Who
