The plane crashed into Mount Slesse near Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada, on 9 December 1956 after encountering severe icing and turbulence over the mountains.

[1] Due to the remoteness and difficulty of the terrain, the crash site was not located until the following May, when it was discovered by mountaineers Elfrida Pigou, Geoffrey Walker, and David Cathcart.

2 (the inner port engine), which was then shut down as a precaution (false fire warnings in North Star aircraft had been noted on numerous previous occasions.)

Pilot Allan Clarke, 35, a former bomber commander,[4] radioed Vancouver Air Traffic Control to notify them of the event ("looks like we had a fire"), requested a return flight path on Airway Green 1 back to Vancouver Airport (the flight path with the most favourable terrain for an aircraft losing altitude), but inexplicably made a right turn instead of a left one and wound up heading west-southwest 12 miles (19 km) south of Green 1 and straight into the border mountains.

All three crew and 59 passengers were killed; among the victims were five professional Canadian football players on their way home from the annual East–West all-star game in Vancouver.