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Lost aircraft found after 60 years
Yahoo
A U.S. Air Force plane that disappeared 60 years ago in Alaska has been found on a glacier, 14 miles from where it originally crashed into a mountain. The C-124 Globemaster and its crew of 52 servicemen were lost when the plane crashed in November 1952. A military spokeswoman said that a recovery team is still working to officially identify debris found on Colony Glacier, about 45 miles east of Anchorage, but that the military believes it to be from the long-missing place. "Some of the evidence positively correlates to the United States Air Force Globemaster that crashed in 1952," said Captain Jamie Dobson of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), which specializes in recovering remains of lost military personnel, the Associated Press reports. An Alaska National Guard helicopter crew conducting a routine training mission in the area first spotted the wreckage on June 10. The findings, which reportedly include suspected bone fragments, are currently being analyzed at JPAC's laboratory in Hawaii. "They weren't seeing human remains. They were seeing wreckage. But it wasn't recoverable. It was frozen in ice," Dobson said. Members of the recovery team descended into some of the glacier's crevasses to look for additional remains but were not able to recover further debris. Historian Doug Beckstead said that pilots searched for the C-124 in the days after it crashed into Mount Gannett. Six days after the crash, pilots spotted the plane's tail sticking out from snow on the mountain. However, bad weather eventually brought an end to the search efforts before any of the crew's bodies could be recovered. Eventually, the wreckage became covered in snow and its exact location was lost. "Over the last 60 years, it's [the plane wreckage] just been flowing down that glacier," Beckstead said. |
I recall watching a documentary many years ago on a civillian airliner that was lost in the Andes. the airliner was basically a converted bomber, and the wreckage was found at the base of a glacier some distance from where the crash site was always thought to be. It turned out that the debris had been covered with snow which slowly got compacted with more snow over the years, and travelled with the glacier down the mountain.
It sounds like this may be a similar issue, the "crash site" has effectively moved with the ice, but whether all the remains have moved at the same rate is another question. |
Also under discussion HERE
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I recall watching a documentary many years ago on a civilian airliner that was lost in the Andes.
I believe that this may be the accident to which Ogre refers: BSAA Star Dust accident - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia I also seem to recall that one of the cabin crew was a female former ATA pilot. Jack |
UJ. A FORMER female?
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A FORMER female?
How "mildly " eccentric but, since I'm feeling "mildly" benevolent, word order changed - plus the spelling error you evidently didn't notice!:ok: Jack |
Uncle Jerry
Uncle Jerry was a WWII P-38 pilot, and I remember reading his letters he wrote to his young wife describing reconnaissance missions (low and fast?) before and after the war. He wrote about the devastation over the "big B", and was happy the killing was over. In the passionate prose in a personal letter, it's different than the history books.
Capt. Jerome Goebel was aboard a C-124 en-route to Elmendorph out of McChord AFB in 1952 (yes, Korea was the going concern) when in heavy weather they flew into Colony glacier. While all of his siblings are gone, I can't properly describe the sense of closure with the rest of the family now that remains are being ID'd. JPAC is actually sending aircraft fragments to family. So, as can be imagined, family is looking for any information that might be out there; some questions for you older pilots, or perhaps some more familiar with the actual details: 1. USAF reports the last communication over Middleton island beacon (couple hundred miles out of Anchorage), and the crash sight was 33 miles off of the expected course (projected from current commercial flight paths). A university professor found the crash site (yes, he was looking for them) in a Cessna shortly after and ID'd the tail number after landing (yes, on the glacier). In absence of radar (true?) and further radio contact, how did Elmendorph know where to look? 2. News reports (and University Professor, direct communication) and communications to wife and mother state Surprise glacier (south slope, Mount Gannett) as the crash site, but the accounts from the discovery last June says Colony glacier (north slope). Trying to understand flying into a north face of a mountain while flying north (crash site observations describe debre isolated to around 2 acres, and only small pieces suggesting flying at speed into the mountain rather than trying to set down on the glacier*), unless the pilot thought he was turning downwind, or something... 3. Navigation at the time: radio beacon and dead reckoning? Investigation reports say IFR around Anchorage. 4. There must have been further communications with Anchorage that haven't been reported, would it make sense communications might have been classified? Revised investigation report strongly suggests communication failure (how likely both nav and comm?) and errant winds aloft reports, otherwise pilot wouldn't be so far off course. Still, how'd some guy in a Cessna find them so quick? If Nav/Comm was functional over Middleton, and later failed, it seems to make little sense flying IFR into the mountains without, err, instruments. *a Northwest pilot describes the last (possible) communication from the flight as "...as long as we have to land, we might as well land here." I remember talking to a Northwest pilot about the approach into Missoula, in the 70's, or there abouts, where they maneuvered through the mountains aided by light beacons on mountain tops that were activated by mike button clicks. Any stories about approaches into Elmendorph in weather that would help explain how these guys ended up where they did. cheers. rj |
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