Where Did They Crash: A Definitive Deep Dive
In celebration of the finale of S2, I thought I'd post the theory I've been working on about where they might have crashed (or my best guess). This will be picture heavy, measured in miles, and tries to account for the movie magic. Anyone with better knowledge of the area/Canada/planes, please feel free to weigh in!
So let's start with a list of things we know:
Promo Material: All the promo stuff states they're in the Northern Ontario Wilderness.
The Flight (1x01): They're making a detour, and will have a great view of the Northen Rockies.
The Rescue (2x01): A news anchor says during the rescue scene from 1998, that the girls were found 600 miles north of the designated flight path.
The Area: We see a large snowy mountain range from the 2nd Winter flash forward at the end of the pilot (no timestamp bc mine have been incorrect before due to being outside the US and using a different platform). Lots of pine trees, a lake, and a fuck ton of snow. (The lake/cabin scenes are all filmed just outside of Vancouver, for reference).
Here is a typical flightpath from Teterboro airport in NJ, to Seatac in Seattle WA:
However, we know there's a detour north that ensures the girls a good view of the N. Rockies, and the above flight path takes them ~100 miles south of the southern most area of the N. Rockies (rough guesstimation based on google maps terrain). The YJs could probably still see them, but I'm not sure if that counts as a 'great view'. For the purpose of my theory, I've shifted the flight path ~100 miles* north, which takes the flight path into Canadian airspace.
(*this is a rough number, it could be a more or less than this! The captain said the diversion was due to a storm system, which are only usually about 15-20 miles wide, but by adding 100 miles, the new flight path would have flown directly over the very bottom of the N. Rockies, ensuring the promised great view.)
Part One: Picking A Side
The original statement, which was released when the pilot was first ordered, before it was filmed and the rest of season 1 was written, places the show in Northern Ontario, the Eastern side of Canada. However, the Rockies are a thousand miles away on the West side. My theory is the writers chose N. Ontario to begin with, but by the time it came to film, they'd changed the location of the crash to B.C. Here's why we can rule out Ontario, and place them in the Rockies definitively.
- The aforementioned mountain ranges. Ontario has some high elevation peaks, but nothing like the Rockies, or the dark mountains we're shown in the pilot.
- 600 miles north of the flight path in Ontario would have them in an area that's full of lakes and is relatively flat.
This is a distance measure of 600 miles from the original flight path, which lands them just above a place called "Big Trout Lake". Any further north, and they're in danger of being able to see Hudson Bay (big water source top centre-right). It's part of the arctic ocean, and there are polar bears in the area, namely the west point of the little dip at the bottom of the bay (aptly named "polar bear provincial park").
600 Miles North Measure for Ontario
That area on maps looks like this:
Mostly flat with lots of little lakes - no match (imo).
Circumstantial evidence in my ❌No Ontario❌ defense. Posted to the official Showtime youtube account shortly before the s2 premiere, It features 90s Kurt Loder discussing the Missing Yellowjackets, 3 months after their disappearance. It also features this map:
For those who cbf going to youtube
This might indicate that they have no idea what the flight path was and that the plane stopped communication early on in the flight, but I took it to mean that this was where the plane was last confirmed to be, until the ? appears while the plane is nearing the Saskatchewan/Alberta border and the plane starts fading out. This puts the flight way past Ontario, ruling it out entirely (to ME!).
Rule out Ontario, add in the N. Rocky Mountains, you've got yourself a British Columbia based Crash site.
Winner: It's a West Side Story.
Part Two: Picking a Latitude
If we take the flight path (original or modified), and we take the 2x01 reveal that they're around 600 miles north of that, and we add in how close they are to the N. Rockies as shown in the pilot, we end up with a rough area of a few hundred miles of where the plane might have crashed.
Here's the end of the AQ ritual scene at the end of the pilot:
That's a lot of mountains, plus the sun rising in the east.
In order to be that close to/in the mountains like that, they need to be squarely in British Columbia (BC/Albertans can confirm or deny this for me, I have only been to Vancouver and S. Ontario).
This is the north east corner of BC, showing a sliver of NWT at the top, and Alberta to the right. I have the terrain overlay on, to show the difference between the flat land on the right and the northern rocky mountains high on the left.
There are provincial parks in the area, and highway 97 wends it's way through. To have the sun rise on the east behind the Rockies, the crash either took place on the very edge, or they're somewhere in the middle (I don't really have a preference).
Notice the 97 shield on the vertical road - it's right above a place called Trutch. This is relevant because:
600 miles north of altered flight path.
If we take the flight path, and the 100 miles north I tacked on to represent the altered flight-path, and we measure 600 miles north of that that point with the other end being near the rockies, it comes out right here:
It has a latitude of 57.8°, which I'm going to round up to 58° for fun (bear in mind that 100mi and 600mi are rough/rounded numbers, so it could be anywhere from 57° to 59° latitude, or higher. I'm doing so much guesstimating you wouldn't even believe).
If you compare this to the screenshot of Trout Lake in N. Ontario from Part 1: Both have the terrain filter turned on! Ontario is not mountainous in the same way the B.C. is mountainous.
North East of the 600mi point is Northern Rocky Mountains Provincial Park, which has pictures if you click on it. Here are a couple:
In Winter (those mountains are similarly dark and snowy!)
In Summer (snowless, but shows off them ranges).
In my extremely humble and potentially wrong opinion, this general area fits with what we know of the crash site pretty perfectly.
Winner: It's 98° 58° give or take.
Part Three: Finding A Lake
The biggest landmark we have besides mountains is the lake. The real lake they filmed at is Stave Lake, just northwest of Vancouver.
Here it is in the show:
Omg Stave Lake you look amazing
And here it is on Google maps:
She's long, skinny, and surrounded by steep terrain.
This gives us a rough idea of what kind of lake we're looking for.
Lakes around the 58th parallel are all long and skinny, like our mate Stave, so there are lots we can choose from.
Here is my best Pick:
These are the Tuchodi lakes. They're around 40 miles North West of the Northern Rocky Mountains Provincial Park, and only 0.2° to 0.4° north of the latitude decided on in Part 2. She's ~11 miles long, and skinny, just like Stave. Here are some pictures I yoinked from google maps:
someone went boating there in 2017 thank you to that man
The shore is not the same rocky pebbles as stave, unfortunately.
It's not a perfect match because it's not the exact same lake, but it's a workable option! Sure, the mountains are steeper and the water is bluer/cleaner, but these are the movie magic suspensions of disbelief we must make.
Fun note: in 1x03 when Tai says she's seen a lake, she said "it looked just left of due north", and "about 5 miles from here". What does left of due north mean? North West, baby! Now, 40 miles is a lot more than 5, but it's the same direction, so I'm counting it as a win.
Another option:
Sure, it's 210 miles further west than Trutch, but it's called Cry lake, next to Dark Mountain. If that's not fitting as hell for the YJs, I don't know what is! Cry Lake has a lattitude of 58.6, which also makes it closer to 700 miles north than 600, but again: Cry Lake by Dark Mountain. She's 15 miles long.
Assorted smaller lakes:
No terrain filter, so we can see the blue bits
These are all just east of Trutch. The Tuchodi lakes are the two lines in the middle on the right side, and they're about 20 miles (As the crow flies) from the "Northern Rocky Mountains Provincial..." writing, to give you a frame of measurement. There are lots of smaller lakes along the bottom of the image that wouldn't be as big/long as Stave, but they're firmly ensconced in the N. Rockies, as well as being around the right latitude (57-59). You could pick any!
Magnum mine near the top is an actual Mine/"populated locality", so there are people in the area (ish) and it holds up all the mine theories—although I think it's a copper mine, if my googling is accurate.
Winner: I like the Tuchodi lakes option, but it could realistically be any long skinny lake in the N. Rockies within 50 miles of the 58th parallel—so like, ~40 different lakes. I think that's the best we can narrow it down to, considering all the visual clues we get from the show are an amalgamation of filming locations around Vancouver.
Part Four: Conclusion/TL;DR
In conclusion, They're in Northern B.C. and definitely not Ontario, around 58° Latitude, with at least some of the N. Rockies to their East, by a long skinny lake.
Thanks for reading! Please feel free to add to anything I've said, point out any glaringly obvious flaws or things I've missed, or just straight up disagree! This took me three hours so I hope it makes sense and is somewhat easy to follow. Buzz Buzz Buzz!! 🐝🐝