On October 17, 1951, 20 passengers and 3 crew members died in which at the time was considered to be the worst aviation accident in British Columbian history when a Canso-A (CF-FOQ)[9] that was operating as Queen Charlotte Airlines Flight 102-17 and was en route from Kitimat to Vancouver crashed into Mount Benson at the 490 m (1,610 ft) level at 6:55 P.M. PDT.

President of the Vancouver chapter of the Canadian Aviation Historical Society Jerry Vernon says the plane took off three hours late at 3 P.M. while it ran into darkness and poor weather conditions.

They think he was doing a turn to the west to line up with the Vancouver runway and he flew into the mountain because he didn't realize he was over Nanaimo and not over the water."

A newspaper report at the time stated that the plane hit a mountainside cliff, burst into flames, then fell 500 feet to a ledge.

In the book Accident Airline, Jim Spilsbury incorrectly claims that another problem with the doomed flight was that the co-pilot was not a trained commercial pilot, but in fact a baggage handler.

This is not true; the co-pilot held a valid commercial license as documented in the accident report from the department of transport.