St. Joseph's Healthcare's security coordinator John McGrinder, right, was pleased to return the locket he found to its owner, Gary Snider. The locket held a photo of Mr. Snider's dad who died in 1963. His mother had stayed at the hospital about eight years ago.

An antique locket found at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton before Christmas has been reunited with the family who lost it.

Niagara-on-the-Lake resident Gary Snider got a call from relatives in Hamilton after they saw an article in the newspaper showing the locket with a photo of a Second World War pilot who looked like his father.

The man in the photo was indeed Jack Snider, who was born in Winona and grew up in Hamilton. Jack became a pilot who flew Lancaster bombers in the war and received the Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for acts of valour, courage or devotion to duty.

After his war duty, Jack became a commercial pilot for Trans-Canada Airlines, which later became Air Canada.

On Nov. 29, 1963, he was flying a DC-8 airplane, the biggest of its kind in the airlines service at the time. En route to Toronto, the plane crashed within minutes of leaving Dorval airport in MontrÈal. According to several witnesses, the plane caught fire while in the air, then exploded and crashed.

The crash has been labeled the worst single-plane crash not due to terrorist activity in Canadian history. All 111 passengers and 7 crew members died.

According to the report of the Commission of Inquiry into the crash, completed by the Department of Transportation in 1965, the exact cause of the crash could not be determined because of the severe break-up of the plane. The most probable cause was mechanical failure.

Gary, who was 15 when his father died, said his mother spent several weeks at the St. Joe's about eight years ago for diagnostic tests before she passed away in 2002. He imagines she must have lost the locket then.

Last month, John McGrinder, the hospital's security coordinator was cleaning out the box of unclaimed lost and found items. At the very bottom, he found the brass locket with a graying photo of a man in military uniform.

"It's quite fateful it should turn up now," Mr. Snider said. "It was a nice time of year for that. It brought some of the family together. It makes you recollect about those you miss."

The item held special interest for Mr. McGrinder, who was a military policeman for 20 years. If no one claimed the locket, he considered donating it to a military museum.

"I didn't expect anyone to come forward. I was pretty pleased," he said. "It was gratifying to make sure the family got it back."