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On October 9, 1930 Captain E.J. "Paddy" Burke departed Atlin in his float-equipped Junkers F-13, with two passengers on board, bound for Liard Post. On the return flight the next day, snow squalls forced the trio to land on the Liard River to await better weather. When persistent weather problems forced a third landing Liard River, a float was damaged, leaving the Junkers and its three occupants stranded, considerably off course from the straight line track between Atlin and Liard Post.
A massive search was launched, and eventually abandoned. By November 12, only one search plane doggedly persisted. It was Everett Wasson and trapper Joe Walsh in the Treadwell Yukon Fairchild G-CARM.
On November 24 Walsh and Wasson spotted the abandoned, snow covered Junkers, and twelve days later discovered two survivors forty miles up the Liard River from the plane. Pilot Paddy Burke had died of exposure and starvation. Aircraft mechanic Emil Kading and passenger Bob Martin had survived 2 months in the winter wilderness with very little food or equipment.
The nearest suitable landing site for Wasson's ski equipped Fairchild was 10 miles from the starving survivor's camp. After three days of snowshoeing, sledding and back-packing, Wasson and Walsh had Kadding and Martin safely aboard the Fairchild, on there way to Whitehorse. Six days later Wasson returned to the Liard River and retrieved the body of Paddy Burke.
And so ended on of the longest air search in Canadian history.
The Following spring a salvage crew removed the Junkers from its ice bound floats, installed a set of skies, and flew the aircraft out.

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Bob Martin & Emil Kading
1930
Liard River Country, BC, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


3

Bob Martin and Emil Kading, as found by Wasson and Walsh after 61 days of awaiting rescue in the Liard River country.

4

Cpt. Paddy Burke in cockpit
1928
Yukon, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


5

Captain E.J.A. "Paddy" Burke in the cockpit of his R.C.A.F. Fairchild FC-2W, based at Jericho Station, and engaged in photo survey work
Brian Burke Photo Collection
R.B. Cameron Collection

6

Emil Kading and Paddy Burke with stranded Junkers
October, 1930
Yukon, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


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Aircraft mechanic Emil Kading (1) and pilot Paddy Burke, pose with their stranded Junkers for the camera of passenger Bob Martin, as all three ponder their fate and consider their survival plan.
R.B. Cameron Collection

8

Joe Walsh examines abandoned Junkers
December, 1930
Yukon, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


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Veteran bushman Joe Walsh examines the abandoned, snowbound Junkers, before he and Everett Wasson take to the air again to resume their search for the Burke party.
E.L. Wasson Photo
R.B. Cameron Collection

10

Happier Times - Paddy and Emile with Jimmy Taku Jack
October, 1930
Liard, BC, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


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Happier Times: (L to R) Paddy Burke and Emil Kading with Jimmy Taku Jack and the Junkers CF-AMX, sometime prior to their ill-fated flight into the Liard Country in October of 1930
Atlin Historical Society

12

Paddy Burk Story
1930
Yukon, Canada