- Date
- 1975-11-10
- Kind
- Weather
- Where
- Beaver Island
- Eras
- Modern era
- Concepts
- aviationweathermaritimeshipwrecks
- Within
- Beaver Island
Summary
In the November 2012 Beaver Beacon, Paul Welke recalls flying from Beaver Island to Charlevoix and returning on November 10, 1975, through deteriorating Great Lakes weather. He landed safely in strong westerly winds and later learned that the Edmund Fitzgerald had sunk that evening.
Evidence limits
This is a first-person retrospective based on the author’s memory and pilot logbooks. It documents his account of the flight and weather, not an independent reconstruction of the storm or the freighter’s final voyage.
Sources
- Beaver Beacon, November 2012, "That Fateful Day."Paul Welke recalls a November 10, 1975 flight from Beaver Island to Charlevoix and back through snow, limited visibility, turbulence, and winds he estimated at about 70 knots, on the day the Edmund Fitzgerald sank. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2012-11_Beaver-Beacon
- The held November issue scan confirms the retrospective flight account.data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 2012-11_Beaver-Beacon
Added 6 August 2026. Recent changes
Cite this article
Beaver Island Archive, “A Beaver Island flight crossed the Edmund Fitzgerald storm on November 10, 1975”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/beaver-island-fateful-flight-edmund-fitzgerald-storm-1975/, accessed [date], citing Beaver Beacon, November 2012, "That Fateful Day." (and 1 further source listed on the page).
Last revised 2026-08-06. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.
BibTeX for “A Beaver Island flight crossed the Edmund Fitzgerald storm on November 10, 1975”RIS for “A Beaver Island flight crossed the Edmund Fitzgerald storm on November 10, 1975”