Posted on 09/22/2022 11:47:33 AM PDT by robowombat
New group will search for U.S. military plane that disappeared over the Yukon in 1950 Group will use drones to access dangerous places
CBC News · Posted: Mar 31, 2022 6:00 AM CT | Last Updated: March 31
The Douglas C-54 Skymaster. On Jan. 26, 1950, the military transport plane left Anchorage, Alaska, with 44 passengers on board. It disappeared after signaling to a small outpost in Snag, Yukon, and has still never been found. (AirHistory.net Photo Archive)
4 comments The search is back on for a U.S. military plane that disappeared in the Yukon decades ago.
A recently formed group in Whitehorse is going to start looking this summer for the fallen Douglas C-54 Skymaster that went down in 1950 carrying 44 passengers.
Brent McHale, a member of the group, said he got involved after watching the documentary Skymaster Down that was released earlier this year, and talking to the filmmaker, Andy Gregg.
The documentary chronicles the ill-fated flight that took off from Anchorage, Alaska, on Jan. 26, 1950, and tells the stories of the victims' families. The U.S. Air Force troop plane was on its way to Montana. It was checking in every half hour along the route and after it crossed into the Yukon, it radioed an outpost in Snag. It was never heard from again.
The U.S. military immediately conducted a search — but found nothing — before it quickly rerouted all its military aircraft to the Gulf of Alaska to search for a missing bomber that was carrying a nuclear warhead. The U.S. Air Force never went back to the Yukon to search for the Skymaster.
Over the years, many Yukoners have searched for the plane, which had four engines, a 30-metre wingspan and an eight-metre high tail fin.
Drones McHale said the group, which includes a geologist, a historian and a glaciologist, is carefully going through all the information and theories about where the plane crashed, and eliminating the more outlandish rumours.
"Once we've dispelled them… we're going to try and designate at least three positive targets that we would consider as a really good starting point and do that one step at a time," he said.
"We will be flying fixed-wing into some of the mountainous areas and taking a look around."
12:20 Film documents search for lost plane Film maker Andrew Gregg's documentary Skymaster Down tells the story of an American military plane that went missing over the Yukon in 1950. No trace of the plane, or the 44 people on board, has ever been found. McHale added the group is also going to use drones to look into some dangerous areas instead of sending in a helicopter.
"Hopefully, we'll… come up with some new evidence and possibly locate this plane in the next fall," he said.
He said if the group does uncover new evidence or finds the plane, it will report it to the authorities.
McHale is quick to point out that while members of the group have a wide range of skills and are committed to finding the plane, they don't have any new information.
"We don't want to give anybody false hope saying that we know anything," said McHale. "We're looking for, you know, the old proverbial saying, a needle in a haystack, obviously. So nothing's going to be easy about this."
Hale Boggs disappeared in Alaska in 1972. Maybe they’ll find him.
Summer’s over. So, how’d they do?
Finding the wreckage of a Skymaster (not much larger than a C-47) in the Yukon after 70 years of snowstorms and tree growth? Good luck.
They’d have more luck finding money in Al Capone’s safe.
People ask, “Where is Bigfoot?”
No one asks, “How is Bigfoot?”
Yeti never complains....
Yet these planes turn up from time to time. Cars have been found 30-40 years after they disappeared in lakes and rivers.
LOL
Old Shakey was the largest transport plane in that era, 4 engines, considerably larger than s Gooney Bird (C-47).
This sounds pretty interesting.
Just a note about the USAF C-54, in the world of civilian aviation, this was the DC-10, the FIRST civilian airplane known as a long-range 4 engine passenger aircraft capable of transcontinental range. It was one of the stars of the 1948-49 Berlin Airlift and an poke-in-the-eye for Soviet Dictator Stalin, who based his thoughts on the capacity of the C-47 / DC-3, an aircraft much less capable.
Postwar Berlin had a population of 2 million people in the French/British/US controlled sections of that city. Support by the WW2 aircraft like the C-47 was impractical and the Potsdam Agreements were agreed to with the unrestricted air-transit agreement based upon that assumption. The added upgrade of the C-54 over the C-47 was that it was a tri-cycle landing gear, which meant that it was a level floor on the ground. The advantages of this in the loading and unloading were immense and under-appreciated. No other Allied plane in use at that time was in quantity to match the C-54 in its throughput.
Good point about the cargo floor vs. the C-47.
Oh my.
The route from Anchorage to Montana goes over the Gulf of Alaska.
The key being "in that era." The C-54's fuselage was 95 feet, and the C-47 was 63 feet, a difference of approximately 32 feet.
The wingspan of the C-54 was 117 feet vs. the C-47's 95. A difference of approximately 22 feet.
So larger, yes, but not massively so. C-54 was much smaller than the Boeing 707.
Oops and thanks for the correction! The DC-10 was that tri-engined jet airliner and probably unable to land at the Berlin airports of that era. I must have been writing in my sleep for this goof.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.