Legend of the Kinosoo
“A young brave regularly paddled around the perimeter of Cold Lake (“Luwe Chok Tuwe” in Dene) to visit a beautiful young girl who he hoped would one day be his wife. It is safer to travel around the perimeter of Cold Lake because the wind can rapidly whip up large waves which can swamp a small birch bark canoe. This particular evening was calm and the lake was like glass so the brave decided to take a short cut across Frenchman's Bay. When he got to the middle of the Bay the water around him began to swirl. There was a thundering splash as the Kinosoo (big fish in Dene) roared up and bit the canoe in half. The brave desperately tried to beat off the Kinosoo with his paddle but soon disappeared below the waves. The young girl on the other side of Bay witnessed the struggle and waited in vain for her beloved to appear. The next morning a broken paddle and bits of canoe drifted ashore and the brave was never seen again.”
Otter Down
A student pilot from RCAF Station Cold Lake was completing the final hour of his checkout on the float equipped DHC-3 Otter. As the student set up for his third ‘glassy water’ landing near the town beach, he configured the Otter for landing.
The plane continued towards the water, and the pilot estimated his height against the shoreline about a quarter mile off his port wing. He let the plane slowly descend towards the surface as he gently pulled back the yolk to bring his rate descent within bounds. It was a textbook approach, but moments after the floats touched the surface, the pilot caught site of large object breaking the surface directly in his landing path. He tried to apply full power to go around, but an instant later the craft was shaken by a violent impact that caused it to flip over on its back.
After dropping from their seats and inflating their lifejackets, the student and instructor pilot escaped into the water and were on the surface just in time to see the wings and then the fuselage slip below the surface. At the crash scene, the weather was clear and calm as the men clung to the floats. The pilot told them what had happened and warned them to keep a wary eye out for a possible return of what he was now firmly convinced was a giant fish having taken down his craft. That a collision of some magnitude occurred was clear by he heavy damage to the front of the floats.
It was after dark by the time the Air Force crews secured the scene and by the next morning they had created an exclusion zone within the area. Military crash investigators who first arrived noted that a local was among the last to have a good look the inverted aircraft and there was no doubt about what they observed.
After conducting a preliminary investigation at the scene, the plane was removed from the water. When it was lifted out it was clear the divers had completely enclosed the water filled floats with a canvas cover. Whether or not there was damage to the floats was kept from public scrutiny.
Some weeks later a hastily convened Board of Inquiry ruled the cause of the accident was “pilot error” stating the pilot, while on a ‘training flight’, failed to retract his wheels before attempting a water landing. The press release also stated the pilot was completing his float endorsement on the Otter at the time so it was written off as a rookie accident. Witnesses clearly remembered the aircraft having made two landings at the town beach before the crash. There is no reasonable explanation as to why the pilot and an experienced instructor would have extended the gear for that third landing on water. Many, including several military personnel, thought release of crash scene photos would have definitively established whether or not the landing gear was extended.
So began another episode in the legend of the Kinosoo, the giant fish that lurks beneath the frigid clear waters of Cold Lake. Beyond allegedly taking tons of fishing gear and more than a few boats over the years, the report above is speculated as the first case of the giant fish taking down an aircraft. That it was an RCAF aircraft was of special concern during the height of the Cold War. Had it been a civilian craft, the investigation might have ended differently, but as it belonged to the Air Force, the whole matter was soon cloaked in secrecy.
This, however, did not stop the rumours.