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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

Posted on 09/03/2020 8:46:54 AM PDT by rickmichaels

On January, 26,1950, Robert Espe, a master seargant in the U.S. Air Force, waved goodbye to his wife Joyce and two-year-old son Victor on a remote air field outside Anchorage, Alaska. It was a snowy day, a month out from the winter solstice. The sun rose not long before 10 a.m. and by 5 p.m. everything was black again.

Joyce Espe was seven months pregnant at the time. A native of Hapur, India, she was struggling with the Alaskan winter. Along with her son and 42 others, all U.S. servicemen, she was flying from the military base in Anchorage, south over the Yukon, to Great Falls, Montana, on leave. From there she planned to go to Rifle, Colorado, where she had close friends, to give birth to her second child.

On January, 26,1950, Robert Espe, a master seargant in the U.S. Air Force, waved goodbye to his wife Joyce and two-year-old son Victor on a remote air field outside Anchorage, Alaska. It was a snowy day, a month out from the winter solstice. The sun rose not long before 10 a.m. and by 5 p.m. everything was black again.

Joyce Espe was seven months pregnant at the time. A native of Hapur, India, she was struggling with the Alaskan winter. Along with her son and 42 others, all U.S. servicemen, she was flying from the military base in Anchorage, south over the Yukon, to Great Falls, Montana, on leave. From there she planned to go to Rifle, Colorado, where she had close friends, to give birth to her second child.

About two hours after take off, the Skymaster’s radio operator checked in over Snag, a tiny goldrush settlement on the Yukon’s White River. The air route from Anchorage to Montana was notoriously rough.

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalpost.com ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: alaska; aviation; godsgravesglyphs; skymaster; snag; yukon
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1 posted on 09/03/2020 8:46:54 AM PDT by rickmichaels
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To: rickmichaels

Hellllloooo-
Can anyone say “Bermuda Triangle”?


2 posted on 09/03/2020 8:48:28 AM PDT by Drango (1776 = 2020)
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To: rickmichaels

Double post.........


3 posted on 09/03/2020 8:51:17 AM PDT by Red Badger (Sine Q-Anon.....................very)
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To: rickmichaels

After reading the excerpt, I have a couple of questions.

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


4 posted on 09/03/2020 8:52:01 AM PDT by PAR35
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To: PAR35

Read the excerpt again with greater scrutiny.


5 posted on 09/03/2020 8:53:50 AM PDT by rickmichaels (I shouldn't have to press 1 for English)
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To: rickmichaels

7 months


6 posted on 09/03/2020 8:55:44 AM PDT by al baby (Hi Mom Hi Dad)
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To: rickmichaels

I’ve come across old airplane wreckage in the mountains of the west. The debris makes for a pretty small area. Remarkably, airplane materials are of such high quality that there is usually very little rust, to none. I came across an F4 Phantom in SoCal mtns that has been there for about 50 yrs.

In the thick trees of the NW, i could see a plane being gone forever for sure. It’s so dense with brush that it simply devours anything. Lots of hikers in the Central Cascades only stepped off the PCT trail for a mere few yards...gone.


7 posted on 09/03/2020 8:58:20 AM PDT by Professional
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To: rickmichaels

8 posted on 09/03/2020 8:59:09 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire. Or both.)
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To: rickmichaels

9 posted on 09/03/2020 9:06:54 AM PDT by Seruzawa (TANSTAAFL!)
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To: rickmichaels

3 years ago we came across a rusted out 65 chevy truck that sat on our small farm we have owned since 1994. Covered in a thick covering of multi flora rose.

Gas company running a gas line across backside of property found it after bulldozing scrub mf rose for a a right of way.

Never knew it was there.


10 posted on 09/03/2020 9:07:41 AM PDT by setter
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To: Professional

Wow. That is a scary story - getting lost just a few yard from the trail!
Did you get the number off the F-4 just in case?


11 posted on 09/03/2020 9:08:44 AM PDT by Little Ray (Freedom Before Security! (Ironic, huh?))
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To: Little Ray

It’s a well known crash site, on a popular motorcycle off road trail. The pilot bailed out and survived.

The forests up here are no joke. A few years back a guy against better judgement tried to forge ahead near White Pass Washington on the PCT trail, in an effort to reach Canada. The weather became very soupy, foggy... it’s a white out. I’ve been in that area with dirt bikes and you cannot see more than a few feet in front of your face.

The guy probably made a weather shelter using branches then froze to death. They have searched the trail, about 30 miles area I’d guess and have signs up. Gone without a trace.


12 posted on 09/03/2020 9:16:25 AM PDT by Professional
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To: Little Ray

“Wow. That is a scary story - getting lost just a few yard from the trail!”

I was at my brothers house in upstate MI walking my dog in the woods behind his house. So thick with bush and trees cannot see more than 15 feet in front of you. I was maybe 1 /2 mile in and lost track of direction. Total silence- no road traffic to catch my bearings.

Slight panic set in and I have been walking in woods for 30 years.

After walking around for a while understood how people can get lost so easily.


13 posted on 09/03/2020 9:19:33 AM PDT by setter
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To: rickmichaels

There is a good sized lake just East of Snag. Do we have the technology to look at the bottom of that lake from space?


14 posted on 09/03/2020 9:24:13 AM PDT by Battle Axe (Repent, for the Lord is coming.)
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To: rickmichaels

Alaska is a huge unforgiving wilderness and can swallow you up without a trace.


15 posted on 09/03/2020 9:33:05 AM PDT by DarrellZero
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; 31R1O; ...
Better check CNN, this may have been a Black Hole incident.

16 posted on 09/03/2020 9:33:52 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: rickmichaels

Maybe additional repetition might help.


17 posted on 09/03/2020 9:35:40 AM PDT by PAR35
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To: rickmichaels

Maybe they are hanging out with Hale Boggs?


18 posted on 09/03/2020 9:37:58 AM PDT by Cowboy Bob (Mocking Liberals is not only a right, but the duty of all Americans.)
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To: Professional

“In the thick trees of the NW, i could see a plane being gone forever for sure.”

The Yukon is not the Pacific NW, it is sub-arctic tundra covered with scrawny black spruce trees and brush. You’d have to tie 5 or more black spruce together to make a Christmas tree. No, that plane is either part of a glacier or at the bottom of a lake.


19 posted on 09/03/2020 9:38:17 AM PDT by 43north (Its hard to stop a man when he knows he's right and he keeps coming.)
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To: rickmichaels

Been number of aircraft disappearing in NY Adirondacks mountains

When consider how rugged area is, heavily forested with number of lakes

Consider too in aircraft crashes the plane can be reduced to debris no bigger than your hand

Is entirely feasible nothing was found


20 posted on 09/03/2020 9:40:09 AM PDT by njslim
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