An airplane carrying 44 people vanished in the Yukon in 1950. After 70 years, it has still not been found

National Post ^ | Sept. 3, 2020 | Richard Warnica

[SunkenCiv]

Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog -- Scores of planes have permanently gone missing since the beginnings of aviation a century ago, but almost all of these have one thing in common. They were flying over deep water or they were close to deep water when they disappeared from the radar. It makes sense: it is very difficult for a large plane to come down on land, even in the wilderness and not be found by determined searchers. This is what makes the disappearance of the Douglas C-54-D in 1950 so mysterious.

The Douglas in question was flying, 26 Jan, from Alaska to Texas (via Montana) with forty-four souls on board. The plane could have crossed into the Pacific with bad weather, but its last signal to the ground came at 15.09 when the pilot  reported that it was flying over Snag, a village in the Yukon (Canada) a long way inland. The search and rescue mission that came afterwards operated in the Yukon or the badlands of northern British Columbia.

The Douglas C-54 was the classic American military transport of that period. It was almost one hundred feet long and over seventeen metric tonnes. This was not a tiny plane like the L'Oiseau Blanc lost in 1927, made, in large part, of canvas and plywood. If you came upon the C-54's grave today or, for that matter, in a thousand years the chances are that you would notice.

And this brings us back to the question of how a plane of this size can go missing.  The US military got as many as eighty-five planes – American and Canadian – in the air for Operation Mike, the search and followed up information from witnesses on the ground. But nothing came of these. 20 February, three and a half weeks later, the search was abandoned. It had taken place in horrendous weather conditions and two planes had been wrecked in the search.

To be fair to the US military Operation Mike was carried out over some of the wildest lands in the continent. If a plane comes down in a desert it can be spotted, but in the forests of the Pacific North-west a seventeen tonne plane can play at needle in a pine haystack. Still sixty years have passed… Is it perhaps, as some have suggested, in a lake. The pilot may have landed the plane on an iced over body of water and whoever survived then died in the cold that followed. The plane would have disappeared into the water once spring came.

If you lose a family member in a plane somewhere over the Pacific there is a part of you that can pretend that they might have made it to an island where they are presently raising children with a beautiful Italian air hostess. There is no such consolation for the family members of the C-54.

The Loss of the Douglas C-54-D in 1950 January 11, 2013

[Psalm 73]

"Alaska is a huge unforgiving wilderness..."

Have flown over Yukon/Alaska at night on way to Asia - no lights for hundreds of miles when you look down - just dark and forbidding.
Just amazes me every time.

[caww]

Alaska reminds one of the Siberia wilderness.....Forests can go on for miles and miles where all you see are trees.

[Safetgiver]

my wife watched the movie Alive about the soccer team which crashed in the Andes ......MMM. Bill!

[1Old Pro]

Even though the cities are crowded, we have incredible wilderness in America.

[43north]

The most scenic drive I have been on is between Banff and Jssper, Alberta - the Valley of 10,000 Peaks.

[Professional]

I bet!

From Hermiston Oregon, down to Carson, Tahoe, Yosemite, Death Valley, Bishop down to So Cal on the 395 highway.... EPIC.

I’ve done that drive with some variations about 7-8 times now in the last 5 years for dirt bike riding adventures.

[Mr. Lucky]

The most scenic drive I have ever taken was from Mahalasville to Helmsburg. Some folks’ worlds are smaller than others.

[Exit148]

Carry a string!

[fireman15]

Personally, I woud rather make a forced landing in a remote area than ditch in the ocean. However this plane was suppose to leave in the morning but had to have repairs made that delayed its departure until 1:00 p.m.. The temperature was -25 F at ground level. They were flying at 10,000 feet over Snag a small town along the route at 3:09 p.m. Chances are they had some type of difficulty that caused the radio and navigation equipment to become inoperable. This plane most likely got off course, went down in complete darkness and hit something solid far from the area that they were expected to be flying over.

[higgmeister]

Douglas C-54 Skymaster, developed from a DC-4

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950_Douglas_C-54D_disappearance

[TangoLimaSierra]

How many months pregnant was she at the time? And how old was Victor?

What time was sunup?

[higgmeister]

We moved to a farm in 1960.   The TV mysteriously stopped working soon after.   I distinctly remember Dad opening the back of the TV set and fiddling around inside.   We moved to Huntsville, Alabama at the end of 1965 and the TV started working again but our viewing times were highly regulated even then.

It wasn't until after Dad passed away in 1979 that I learned from my older siblings that he had pulled out all of the vacuum tubes to make sure the TV wouldn't work for five years.

[Oatka]

It must be true, I saw it in the newspaper.

On a different note, I read that when a plane crahes in the Amazon jungle (or similar), the natives comes out and scavenge all the metal, so the plane just "disappears".

[Georgia Girl 2]

I don’t want to say it was aliens. But.

[minnesota_bound]

It is right where it crashed.

[Monkey Face]

LOL! What a great dad!! We didn’t need that incentive. We thought it was just a small box with a movie theater in it. We still spent our summers outside. (We lived in the Rocky Mountains, so winters, we were snowbound.)