Bill Barilko - Disappearance and Death

Disappearance and Death

Four months later, on August 26, 1951, Barilko joined his dentist, Henry Hudson, on a flight aboard Hudson's Fairchild 24 floatplane to Seal River, Quebec, for a weekend fishing trip. On the return trip, the single-engine plane disappeared and its passengers remained missing. Eleven years later, on June 6, 1962, helicopter pilot Ron Boyd discovered the wreckage of the plane about 100 kilometres (62 mi) north of Cochrane, Ontario, about 35 miles off course. The cause of the crash was deemed to have been a combination of pilot inexperience, poor weather and overloaded cargo. Notably, the Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup that year, after not winning it at all during the eleven years that he was missing. The Tragically Hip's song "Fifty Mission Cap", from their 1992 album Fully Completely, features Barilko's story and the lack of another Leafs championship with the lyrics "Bill Barilko disappeared, that summer, he was on a fishing trip. The last goal he ever scored, won the Leafs the cup. They didn't win another, 'till 1962, the year he was discovered."