Buffalo 461
A de Havilland Canada CC-115 in 2004 (30 years earlier, Buffalo 461 was painted white and its markings were not the same).
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| Incident summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | 9 August 1974 |
| Summary | Shot down by missiles |
| Site | Ad Dimas, Syria |
| Passengers | 4 |
| Crew | 5 |
| Fatalities | 9 |
| Injuries (non-fatal) | 0 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft type | de Havilland Canada DHC-5 Buffalo |
| Operator | Canadian Forces |
| Registration | 115461 |
| Flight origin | Beirut International Airport, Lebanon |
| Destination | Damascus, Syria |
Buffalo 461 was a Canadian military de Havilland Canada DHC-5 Buffalo assigned to the second United Nations Emergency Force force in Syria in support of United Nations Security Council Resolution 340. Assigned to a peacekeeping force, Buffalo 461 was shot down by three Syrian missiles on August 9, 1974 killing all nine passengers and crew.
The loss of Buffalo 461 remains both the largest single-incident loss of life in the history of Canadian peacekeeping operations and was the most recent Canadian Forces aircraft shot down while in service until a Chinook helicopter was downed on operations in Kandahar, Afghanistan in August 2010.
The second United Nations Emergency Force was authorized by the United Nations Security Council to supervise the ceasefire between Egypt and Israel following the end of the October War. Besides preventing additional flare-ups of fighting, the peacekeeping force was also tasked with assisting the Red Cross with humanitarian efforts in the region. Canada was a leader in these peacekeeping efforts and was providing logistics, signals and air and service units. Their three Buffalo aircraft were flying six-day-a-week schedules.
UN Flight 51 was Buffalo 461's last flight designation, for a routine scheduled supply trip from Ismailia, Egypt to Damascus, Syria. Five crew members and four military passengers were on board when the aircraft took off from Beirut International Airport after a stopover. The First Officer, Captain Keith Mirau, received clearance to enter Syrian airspace from the Damascas air traffic control centre at 0945 GMT. Shortly after crossing from Lebanon into Syria the plane was hit by a surface-to-air missile launched from a Syrian airfield. Moments later two more missiles struck and destroyed the plane, scattering wreckage across a field near the Syrian town of Ad Dimas. All nine on board were killed.
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