Lost: True Stories of Canadian Aviation Tragedies

Patricia A. Myers is a historian at the Historic Sites and Archives
Service, Alberta Community Development. She is the author of Sky Riders:
An Illustrated History of Aviation in Alberta, 1906–1945 and
Preserving Women’s History.

Shirlee Smith Matheson is well known in aviation writing circles. Her
three Flying the Frontiers volumes are popular compilations of aviation
adventure stories. In this new work, she moves past adventure and into
the realm of aviation tragedy.

These are the stories of crashes, disappearances, and unsolved
mysteries ranging from the reasons behind crashes to the whereabouts of
downed pilots and passengers. Matheson combines research in published
sources such as newspapers and journal articles with interviews of
people involved in the tragedies, from family members to those involved
with search and rescue. The book is illustrated with photographs.

There’s a good range of stories. We go underwater in search of lost
planes. We follow the disappearance of Sigismund Levanevsky somewhere in
the Arctic while on a Moscow to Fairbanks flight in 1937. We read about
phantom crews and haunted airplane parts. We explore in detail the case
of Johnny Bourassa, who vanished while on a flight from Bathurst Inlet
to Yellowknife in 1951.

Despite their grim subject matter, these stories are not as compelling
as those in Matheson’s adventure series. Sometimes she seems to be
stretching the material just a bit too far, and in others speculation
takes over. Still, for fans of aviation tales, Lost brings together many
mysteries from the past, and aviation buffs will want to add the book to
their collections.