Arctic Moment: Close Call

The remains of downed aircraft dot the North and there’s a story behind every one of them. But few are as consequential as this DC-3, illuminated here by a snowmobile’s headlight. The plane ran out of fuel during a flight from Pond Inlet to Frobisher Bay (now Iqaluit) on November 3, 1975. Among the 26 passengers were John Amagoalik, often regarded as “the father of Nunavut,” and several other Inuit who would go on to play crucial roles in the creation of the territory 24 years later. They’d been returning from an early land claims agreement conference. If everyone hadn’t survived, northern history might look different today.