Canada’s National Peacekeepers’ Day / Journée Nationale des Casques Bleus takes place August 9th. 

On November 4, 1956 Lester B. Pearson proposed the creation of what would become the first large-scale United Nations Peacekeeping force to resolve the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Middle East Pearson Proposes UN Emergency Force (UNEF), 1956 | VALOUR CANADA

Lester B. Pearson: On Guard for World Peace
Canadian PM and statesman who created Peace Keepers.
Part of the The Millennium Collection series
Issued by Canada Post in 2000
Designer: Kiky Kambylis

International Peacekeepers Day takes place May 29, but Canada has a separate commemoration. On August 9, 1974, Canadian peacekeeping forces suffered their greatest single day loss when a Buffalo transport aircraft, flown by the RCAF, was shot down over Syria. The flight was on an approved path, and cleared by Syrian air control when it was slammed by 3 surface to air missiles. 

It was a typically hot sunny day with light winds over the eastern Mediterranean on the early afternoon of August 9, 1974. United Nations Flight 51 chugged its way along the centre line of airway R-14, maintaining an altitude of 11,000 feet at a sedate speed of 205 knots. It was enroute from Ismailia, Egypt, to Damascus, Syria, via Beirut, Lebanon.

The cargo aircraft was an unarmed Canadian Armed Forces’ de Havilland Canada (DHC) Buffalo, tail number C-115461, painted in the unmistakable, distinctive United Nations livery of blue and white.

The U.N. was trying to referee the latest tension-filled peace settlement in the Middle East. Canada committed boots on the ground and tasked 116 Air Transport Unit (116 ATU) to provide logistical air support for the U.N. observers on the Golan Heights separating Syria and Israel.
Remembering the “Buffalo Nine” – News Article – Royal Canadian Air Force – Canada.ca

Aboard the flight were  

• Captain George Gary Foster (Pilot)
• Captain Keith Mirau (First Officer)
• Captain Robert Wicks (Navigator)
• Master Corporal Ronald Spencer (Flight Engineer)
• Corporal Bruce Stringer (Loadmaster)
• MWO Gaston Landry
• MWO Cyril Korejwo
• Corporal Michael Simpson
• Corporal Morris Kennington
  Remembering the “Buffalo Nine” – News Article – Royal Canadian Air Force – Canada.ca

 On their Damascus an eyewitness described seeing the aircraft attacked:

11,000 feet below them, an employee of the American Embassy in Damascus was returning from days off in Beirut. He was driving east along the Beirut-Damascus highway when, to his astonishment, a missile passed over him traveling in the opposite direction. He distinctly recalled seeing a second stage of the missile ignite, said he jammed on his brakes, stopped, leapt out his car and tried to visually follow the missile’s trajectory.

“At that time I noticed a silver-coloured plane flying in the air and it seemed to be smoking from the tail,” he said.

He said that he did not see an explosion or pieces falling off the aircraft. He probably witnessed a glancing blow or a near-miss by either a proximity or commanded detonation by a Soviet-made SA-2 surface-to-air missile (SAM).

It is impossible to imagine the frantic pandemonium going on the inside the Buffalo as white-hot, flesh-tearing, shrapnel ripped through it. Why did they not broadcast a distress call? It could be they did. Investigators revealed evidence that the Syrians had erased two-and-a half-minutes of conversation from the ATC communication tapes, and the Buffalo carried no flight data or cockpit voice recorders.

Back on the ground, the American was horrified to see a second missile strike the Buffalo in the left wing area approximately a minute to a minute-and-a-half later. This time, he said, “it bucked and it shook and I saw pieces fall”. It was clearly a direct hit. The left wing was on fire and the descent attitude had suddenly increased to a steep dive.

Seconds later a third missile struck the burning hulk in the cockpit area at about 500 feet above the ground. The witness explained, “The plane blew apart and she took a nose dive from what was left of it and it went straight into the ground!”

The Syrians rushed helicopters with medics aboard to the crash site immediately but it was obvious as soon as they arrived that there were no survivors.
Remembering the “Buffalo Nine” – News Article – Royal Canadian Air Force – Canada.ca

It was never determined if the attack was a mistake by Syria’s defense system or a deliberate attack by an unknown party on a visible UN airplane. 

To date 130 Canadians have been killed while serving peace keeping duties and over 125,000 served missions around the world.