Marten Hartwell

Marten Hartwell[1] (1925 – April 2, 2013)[2]: 18 [3][4] was a German-Canadian bush pilot in the Canadian Arctic.[3] On November 8, 1972, the plane that Hartwell was flying on a medical evacuation crashed.[3] One passenger was killed on impact, another died shortly after, and the pilot had two broken ankles and could not walk.[3] One passenger, a boy, David Pisurayak Kootook, survived the initial crash along with Hartwell but died after 23 days.[5] The pilot was rescued after 31 days. Since the pilot was injured and unable to obtain local food, and emergency rations had run out, the pilot was forced to consume flesh from one of the dead passengers.[3][6] At the time of his death he lived at Black River, Kings, Nova Scotia.[7]

A Beech 18, similar to the incident aircraft C-FRLD.
  1. ^ Some sources spell his name as Martin
  2. ^ Tadman, Peter (1991). Survivor. Gorman and Gorman Ltd. ISBN 0-921835-16-7.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Eskimo boy 'decided to die'". Eugene Register-Guard. December 13, 1972. Retrieved August 11, 2012.
  4. ^ "Crash pilot's 31 day Arctic ordeal". The Sydney Morning Herald. December 11, 1972. Retrieved August 11, 2012.
  5. ^ "Mr. David Kootook - Meritorious Service Decorations - Civil Division". The Governor General of Canada. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference deathreport was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Marten Hartwell at White Family Funeral Home