About: Marten Hartwell

Marten Hartwell (1925 – April 2, 2013) was a German-Canadian bush pilot in the Canadian Arctic. On November 8, 1972, the plane that Hartwell was flying on a medical evacuation crashed. One passenger was killed on impact, another died shortly after, and the pilot had two broken ankles and could not walk. One passenger, a boy, David Pisurayak Kootook, survived the initial crash along with Hartwell but died after 23 days. The pilot was rescued after 31 days. Since the pilot was injured and unable to obtain local food, and emergency rations had run out, the pilot was forced to consume flesh from one of the dead passengers. At the time of his death he lived at Black River, Kings, Nova Scotia.