First medical flight in Alberta marks 90 years as aviation historians find first patient

In 1932, the Fokker Universal C-FAHJ, embarked on it’s first ever medical flight. It was a plane with no navigation, no communication, and no GPS — only equipped with a compass and an old school map. It was equipped with floats.

It flew in and out of Cooking Lake Airport, the oldest operating airport in Canada and was a major staging point for bush pilots during the early pioneering days of aviation in Canada.

The historic plane transported its very first patient 90 years ago this summer.

Gladys Hill was an expectant mother who was close to delivery. She and her husband Walter Hill, a pharmacist owner, were about to have their second baby and due to some complications, they needed to hitch a ride from their home in Fort McMurray to Edmonton.

Historians with the Cooking Lake Airport spent time to track down the baby, hoping they would be fortunate enough to find him.

That “baby” is Ken Hill. The soon-to-be 90-year-old lives with his wife, Diane, in Calgary.

Jill Croteau reports.

For more info, please go to https://globalnews.ca/news/9085962/first-alberta-medical-flight-anniversary/
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