On November 3, 1972, a helicopter left Thompson, Manitoba, bound for Winnipeg with stops en route. On board was 22-year-old passenger Nathen David Kryger, the pilot and two other passengers. The flight departed Thompson at 3:20 p.m.; after leaving Warren’s Landing around 5:20 p.m. the pilot reported poor weather and expected an 8:00 p.m. arrival. The last radio contact came at 5:50 p.m. with the aircraft reported over Poplar River. After that communication the helicopter vanished.

An extensive search involving Canadian Air Search and Rescue, private craft and police aircraft scoured the remote Lake Winnipeg area for two weeks; the official search was suspended on November 17, 1972, with no immediate trace of the aircraft or its occupants. The pilot’s body was recovered the following spring on the shore of Lake Winnipeg, but Nathen Kryger and the other remaining passenger were never found and are presumed lost in the crash. Authorities said foul play was not suspected.

Does anyone have family knowledge, witness recollections from northern Manitoba in 1972, or information about searches that followed in the spring of 1973?