The crash occurred approximately 1 kilometer beyond the runway of Gander International Airport at precisely 6:45 A.M. on Thursday, December 12, 1985. The 16 year-old Arrow Air DC-8 aircraft was carrying 256 passengers; 240 were U.S. servicemen returning from six months of duties in the Sinai dessert and the remaining eight were members of the crew-all perished in the crash.

The military personnel had been flown the previous day from their station in the Sinai at Ras Nasrani, Egypt by two Egyptian Air 727's to Cairo International Airport. All baggage, military records and army equipment came from the Sinai in army trucks. The Arrow Air DC-8 which was to link up with the troops in Cairo was five hours late in arriving. Because of the political situation in Cairo, the servicemen were taken to a Cairo hotel to await Arrow Air's arrival.

When it finally arrived, troops boarded and the aircraft took off for Cologne, West Germany where it stopped for well over an hour for refueling at 5:15 A.M. on December 12 for another refueling stop. The servicemen were in good spirits as they were to be reunited with friends and family over the Christmas period. They brought many souvenirs and the airport staff could only recall many happy faces. Their loved ones in Fort Campbell, Kentucky were only hours away.

A very light snowfall and typical winter cold made the soldiers shutter as the boarding procedure came to its final stages. The aircraft started its engines and last minute verifications were made before the DC-8 taxied to take-off before plunging into a wooded area near Gander Lake. Something horrible, something still undetermined happened in that short period of time, which made all the difference between a normal take-off and the worst air disaster on Canadian soil in history.