Fraser’s Flight

Bill Whelan

2026 01 24

Douglas Fraser was a flyer, 29 years of age. He held Canadian commercial pilot’s license number 720 for Flying Machines. Fraser’s aircraft was a Curtis Robin equipped with floats in summer and skis in winter. Fraser’s base was Lake Quidi Vidi on the outskirts of St. John’s. Bert Clayton was his mechanic.

Fraser and Clayton took off from the frozen surface of Quidi Vidi at 11.40am on the 15th of January in 1934, a Sunday dead in the middle of the Newfoundland winter.   They were bound for Carmanville, call it 220 miles distant, to bring out Miss Hattie Hicks, daughter of Mr Daniel Hicks. Miss Hicks had acute appendicitis.

On the outward flight they ran into a blinding snowstorm at Holyrood, only about 25 miles along their way.   They climbed to 4000 feet to get above that and of course lost sight of the ground.   This was important, for Fraser navigated entirely by sight and by compass.  Radar?  Had not been invented!  Radio direction finders?  Had not been invented!   Well-lit airports?  None in Newfoundland!

They avoided flying over open water.   Douglas Fraser was not foolish. If they came down in water there was no hope. If they came down in the country they might walk out. There would be no Search and Rescue. They were Search and Rescue.

They flew out of the Holyrood snow and had clear weather until they met another storm at Terra Nova.   Then there was clear air to Carmanville.   They landed there at 1.40pm.  Twenty minutes sufficed to take over the care of Hattie Hicks from brave young Nurse Jessie Troke.

They were away at 2.00pm and soon met snow.  This continued to St. John’s.   For a time they flew blind at 4000 feet by compass but came down to about 400 feet over Random Sound.   Then they followed the coast to Dildo and went inland to pick up the line of the railway at Whitbourne.

Fraser followed the railway line to St. John’s. Telegraph operators reported his position to St John’s as he passed railway stations. The alert had gone out to operators as the plane left Carmanville.  For the time, this was high-tech. Fraser was careful to fly close to trains and railway stations. At Port Blandford the train hands saw the plane and reported its position. The railway stations at Gambo and Notre Dame Junction also reported sighting him.

The weather was thick at St. John’s,  well after 4.00 on a winter afternoon. The Daily News made out the shadowy shape of Douglas Fraser’s plane through the wreaths of driving snow. Fraser had difficulty finding his key city landmarks:  the Roman Catholic Cathedral, Colonial Building, General Hospital.   He needed to see these, one after the other, to find the lake. St John’s was white and steep. The lake was white and level, the only place to land.   People on the ground became concerned as he circled. At last he made it, landing safely at 4.32. Landing lights?  None in Newfoundland. An ambulance waited for Hattie Hicks at the Fraser hanger on the lake.  Fraser spoke to the press.  He said it was his most trying experience since he first piloted a plane.

Read the original report: see the Daily News of Monday 15 January 1934

Douglas Fraser went on in aviation.  He performed the aerial surveys for the bases at Gander and Stephenville and Argentia. He took part in the search for Sir Frederick Grant Banting after the Hudson bomber carrying Banting went down on a cold February night in 1941, on its way to the war in England with Banting as passenger. Failure of the oil cooling system forced the pilot to shut down the plane’s starboard engine and turn back for Gander. They were over the Atlantic at the time, about 50 miles northeast of Gander. They were not in great danger, as the aircraft could fly indefinitely on one engine.  But then the oil supply to the port engine failed.

The Hudson came down in darkness on the shore of a lake about 12 miles southwest of Musgrave Harbour. The navigator and radio operator were killed. The pilot was not injured. Banting survived the crash but died later in the snow, near the plane.

At the crash site Douglas Fraser found Banting’s briefcase, thought to contain top secret research findings on g-forces and fighter pilots. However, in his book Banting: A Biography, Michael Bliss tells us that there was nothing of importance in Banting’s briefcase. Douglas Fraser did not know that, on the ground, at the time. He suspected sabotage. After all, Banting was a great scientist, discoverer of insulin as the treatment for diabetes. Fraser assumed that Banting was engaged in vital war work.

In the 1980’s Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame recognized Douglas Fraser of St John’s as an aviation pioneer. The journalist Ray Guy went along one day to interview Fraser.   The elderly aviator was modest about early achievements. He made light of it all in the interview. He said he had shaved the tops off some Newfoundland hills in various forced landings in his youth. He did not mention the Hattie Hicks flight or Banting’s briefcase.

The city of Gander named a shopping mall in honour of Fraser. Memorial University awarded him an honorary degree, Doctor of Laws. Douglas Fraser died in 1990.