Martin Hartwell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Martin Hartwell was a Canadian bush pilot. On November 8, 1972 Hartwell was given a charter to fly from Cambridge Bay, N.W.T. with three passengers; a pregnant Inuk woman, a 14 year old Inuk boy named David Pisurayak Kootook (who was suffering from appendicitis) and an attending government nurse named Judy Hill. The plane Hartwell was flying was en route to Yellowknife where his passengers could receive medical care at the local hospital.
Some time after taking off from Cambridge Bay during a fierce storm, the plane crashed into a hillside near Lake Hota. Judy Hill and the pregnant woman were killed instantly, but Hartwell and the young boy survived the crash, although both of Hartwell's legs were broken. For weeks the two survived the brutally harsh weather where the average temperature was minus 35 degrees Fahrenheit (−37 degrees Celsius), and Kootook was instrumental in the pair's survival by gathering firewood for a small warming fire and by cutting pieces of flesh off the body of Judy Hill for their sustenance.
After an extensive aerial and ground search that lasted 31 days, Hartwell was found alive, although Kootook had died the day before. During his lifetime Hartwell steadfastly refused to discuss his story with journalists and blocked any attempt to portray the story in film or on television. The 2003 motion picture The Snow Walker is loosely based on the story of Hartwell's survival. In 1998 David Pisuriak Kootook, the Inuk boy from Taloyoak who saved the downed pilot, was honoured by the Northern Transportation Company by having a ship named after him.
The story of Hartwell's survival, with emphasis on the role played by Kootook, are related in "The Martin Hartwell Story" by Canadian balladeer Stompin' Tom Connors.
