Marten Hartwell

Martin J. Hartwell (born c. 1925 or 1927) was a Canadian bush pilot in the Canadian Arctic. On November 8, 1972 the plane that Hartwell was flying on a medical evacuation crashed. One passenger was killed on impact, another died shortly after, and the pilot had two broken ankles and could not walk. One boy, David Pisurayak Kootook, survived the initial crash along with Hartwell but perished after 20 days. The pilot was rescued after 31 days. Since emergency rations had run out the pilot was forced to consume flesh from one of the dead passengers.

Crash

Cambridge Bay

Hottah Lake

Yellowknife

Marten Hartwell (Northwest Territories)

On November 8, 1972, Hartwell was given a charter to fly from Cambridge Bay, N.W.T. (now Nunavut) with three passengers who had just arrived from Spence Bay; a pregnant Inuk woman named Neemee Nulliayok, a 14 year old Inuk boy named David Pisurayak Kootook (who was suffering from appendicitis), and an attending government nurse named Judy Hill. Hartwell was not flying a normal scheduled route, but happened to be in Cambridge Bay after dropping off prospectors on the Barrens. His aircraft, a Gateway Aviation Beechcraft 18, was chartered by the nurse and doctor in Cambridge Bay to fly on to Yellowknife where his passengers could receive medical care at the local hospital.

Some time after taking off from Cambridge Bay in bad weather and low cloud, the plane crashed into a hillside near Hottah Lake, just south of Great Bear Lake. The nurse, Judy Hill was killed on impact. The Inuit woman died during several hours later. Hartwell and the young boy survived the crash, although both of Hartwell's ankles, his left knee and his nose were fractured. For weeks the two survived the brutally harsh weather where the average temperature was −35 °F (−37 °C). Kootook was instrumental in the pair's survival by erecting a tent and making fires. He died after the 20th day whereupon the pilot survived by eating part of the leg of the nurse.

Search

The initial search lasted one week, but then was reopened by the Minister of Defence, Charles Drury, in the course of a dramatic CBC As It Happens interview with the pilot's father-in-law, David Haley. Hartwell was found alive after 31 days. Hartwell gave a lengthy interview to the Observer after his rescue, but did not cooperate in any attempt to portray the story in film or on television.

Val Wake was a CBC News reporter based in Yellowknife when the story of the lost medical evacuation became world news. He flew with 440 Squadron Namao when SAR Hartwell was in operation flying low over the barrenlands looking for any trace of the downed Beechcraft 18. Wake spent nearly six hours strapped to the open ramp of a searching Hercules. SAR Hartwell failed to find any trace of the Hartwell plane. After a week of searching in failing light and falling temperatures the operation was called off, but political pressure from Ottawa resumed the search. One of the prime movers of this pressure was Susan Haley of the University of Alberta, Calgary and her father, Dr Haley of Acadia University, Nova Scotia. During the early stages of the search Susan Haley came to Yellowknife and camped in Wake's office demanding that the search be resumed. The search resumed in difficult conditions. There was less than six hours of daylight and temperatures were 10 to 20 below zero out on the barrenlands. The resumed search did not find the lost plane. The plane was found after a commercial jet plane picked up an emergency signal from Martin Hartwell's emergency radio beacon. It is a routine procedure for commercial aircraft to monitor the emergency channels.

Inquiry

The international interest in the loss of the plane was demonstrated by the sudden arrival in Yellowknife of the international press corps, including a reporter from the London Daily Mirror. The Daily Mirror man started offering money around town to any one who would give him information about Martin Hartwell. He was not very successful. Wake filed stories with the broadcasting services in Britain, Scandinavia, Europe, Asia and Australia.

At the time the people of Yellowknife had their doubts about Martin Hartwell. He was not checked out for instrument flying and his plane had crashed into the only bit of high ground in the flight path from Cambridge Bay to Yellowknife. When the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) inspected Hartwell's camp they found small plastic bags containing parts of Judy Hill. Hartwell greeted his rescuers by saying: "Welcome to the camp of a cannibal."

Although Hartwell refused to attend the Yellowknife inquest into the loss of the plane and its passengers a lot of evidence about Hartwell was presented to the Yellowknife inquest. Hartwell was a German, trained by the Luftwaffe. At the crash scene he left a note for his son Peer. The note was translated by Gerry Reimann of Yellowknife and was read into the inquest record. The note said:

When you receive this letter, I will be dead. I have had an accident on Nov. 8/72 and I am still laying in the bush with broken legs. Have no more food. Please forgive me for sins. I love you, my only son. Please contact Miss Susan Haley c/o Deptment of Philosophy, U of A, Edmonton, Alberta. She was, for the past year and a half, a close companion. An even better address may be: Miss Susan Haley c/o Dr Haley, University of Wolfville, N.S., Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada. There are savings in the Imperial Bank of Commerce here in Yellowknife and Edmonton. You should have $3,000 and Susan the rest that she may pay my debts and the unpaid ones with court. I am wishing you all the best and remember me. In my heart I was not all that bad.

The inquest was told that Judy Hill and Neemee Nulliayok died when the plane ran into the hill. David Kootook survived living off tree bark. He refused to eat any of Judy Hill's flesh. He died about a week before Hartwell was rescued. Two paramedics were parachuted into the crash scene. They found Hartwell physically fine but his mental condition was poor. Hartwell was first taken to Stanton Yellowknife Hospital where he was said to be in excellent physical condition.

Legacy

The story of Hartwell's survival, with emphasis on the role played by Kootook, are related in "The Martin Hartwell Story" by Canadian balladeer Stompin' Tom Connors. Tom Connors' song was a deep embarrassment for many Yellowknifers who felt that the less said about the accident the better. They also felt that the south was criticising the north for not doing enough to rescue the missing nurse and her patients. Connors' song does not contain any reference to the cannibalism aspects of the incident.

The 2003 motion picture The Snow Walker is loosely based on the story of Hartwell's survival. In 1998 David Pisuriak Kootook, the Inuk boy from Taloyoak who saved the downed pilot, was honoured by the Northern Transportation Company by having a ship named after him.

The Spence Bay nurse, Judy Hill, was born at Kingsbridge, England. Judy Hill's mother was a matron at a local hospital. In 1977 a BBC reporter, Jim McDougall, published a book titled Angel of the Snow about Judy Hill. McDougall visited the Northwest Territories as part of his research. According to McDougall a Judy Hill Memorial Fund was organised and contributions was made from around the world. The money is used to help in the training of nurses.

McDougall says that Neemee and David were buried in a private plot in Edmonton. Judy Hill's body was taken to Banff where she was cremated and her ashes were scattered by Judy's boyfriend Chris at a quiet place on the Bow River.

References

• Tadman, Peter (1991). The Survivor.