Forty years ago today, on December 12, 1985 (November 1, 1985 lunar calendar), more than 200 soldiers were killed in the crash of a US chartered civilian plane. In the early morning of December 12, 1985, a US chartered civilian plane crashed on the Canadian island of Newfoundland, killing all 250 US soldiers and eight crew members on board who were returning from the Middle East for Christmas. The US military on this DC-8 civilian plane were officers and men of the "Peacekeeping Force" stationed in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, belonging to the 101st Airborne Division of the United States. After taking off from Cairo, the plane refueled at Cologne Airport in the Federal Republic of Germany, and then flew across the Atlantic Ocean to refuel at Gander Airport in Newfoundland, Canada. But it crashed into the woods hundreds of meters from the runway just after taking off from the airport. According to reports, the black box from the crashed plane has been found, but "the recording equipment in the box is broken, and it is difficult to decipher what is recorded in it."