DeHavilland Canada DHC-3 Otter (1956)

DeHavilland Canada DHC-3 Otter (1956)

The DHC-3 Otter is one of the largest single-engine aircraft built after World War II. Developed by DeHavilland Canada as a short takeoff and landing utility transport, as 55-3251 it was delivered to the U.S. Army on March 12, 1956. Over the next 18 years it continued its Army service based at several locations — from the old blimp hangars at Lakehurst, New Jersey. to White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

In 1974 it was prepared for transfer to the U.S. Air Force and assigned to Goose Air Base in Labrador, Canada. There 55-3251 served the 95th Strategic Wing until May 1975, when the Air Force withdrew its aircraft from Goose Bay. It was transferred to Civil Air Patrol and registered as N5323G.

CAP flew N5323G out of the Alaska Wing at Elmendorf Air Force Base. During nine years of CAP service, the Otter operated in both wheel and wheel-ski configurations, with its large cargo bay hauling snowmobiles and other assets during remote Alaskan search-and-rescue missions.

In December 1986 N5323G was sold to a cargo company in Phoenix and then, in 1989, to a river-rafting outfitter back in Alaska. Loaded with spare Otter parts, it was on this last leg of the transfer trip from Arizona that the engine suffered a catastrophic failure.

The two transport pilots were forced to ditch near Prince Rupert, British Columbia, and were rescued onshore by a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter. N5323G, however, sank in the deep waters of the Grenville Channel and remains there today.

Maj. Ron Finger is a freelance illustrator and member of the Minnesota Wing’s Crow Wing Composite Squadron. He’s an Air Force Art Program artist, one of a select pool of artists assigned “art missions” to document specific U.S. Air Force operations. 

Among his duties as Civil Air Patrol’s national artist, Finger researches and creates art that portrays our historical emergency service. A personal goal is to complete paintings documenting every aircraft type CAP has flown. 

This is the 25th painting in Finger’s second series of depictions of vintage CAP aircraft. More of Finger’s CAP artwork can be seen at redpine.net.

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