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 Skymasters radio operator checked in over Snag, a tiny goldrush settlement on the Yukons White River. The air route from Anchorage to Montana was notoriously rough.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalpost.com ...
One time my wife and I were flying back from a $100 hamburger run when we spotted a pickup truck that was a couple hundred feet below a logging road in a remote area in the coastal range of hills between Elma and Olympia, WA. It took half a dozen passes to confirm that it was not just an abondoned vehicle that had been pushed off the road.
The state patrol went and checked it out. It turned out that it had just happened the night before and the people miraculously were not seriously injured, but they must have had a pretty wild ride. This was at the edge of a clearcut area and the vehicle would likely have been covered with brush and black berries within a few months. But it still would have been easier to spot than a plane that went down in the middle of an unmolested forest far from any roads.
I recall that Dean Martin’s son, Dino, was a captain in the CA Air National Guard who died when the F4 Phantom he was flying crashed. That was in 1987, here is a very good news article about it:
https://apnews.com/f457b4466908b595369e07968679fbb0
I always tell people that if I ever get lost in the woods, I’m gonna start a fire. A forest fire. People who wouldn’t cross the street to look for me will come to fight a forest fire.
Where are Fabian and The Duke when you need them?
:o|
‘Face
This plane hit a 1300 ft “mountain” all passengers dead
Wow, that’s going back a ways! ;^)
Story here https://www.mttommemorial.org/story
I’ve driven the Yukon twice, yup, it’s rather barren in many places but not all. But yep, it’s likely that it’s buried in ice or at the bottom of a swamp/lake.
For anyone interested in a very nice long drive... The Alaskan Highway is NOT it. Boring endless nothing....
*ahem*
Them’s fightin’ words, you young whippersnapper!
;o]
Last words of the pilot. “Gee, what’s a mountain goat doing on a cloud bank.”
/Far Side
I don’t remember the drive because I was only six weeks old. The only thing I know for sure is that the Al-Can Highway was entirely gravel.
Thanks, that made my whole day! :^) Of course I remember watching it on TV, and it, uh, *was* a black and white TV... ;^)
"North to Alaska" was in color, even when it was on TV. Unless you had a set that only broadcast in B&W. ;o])
I think the only reason they found the wreckage of Steve Fossett was a hiker found his identification about a year after the crash. He disappeared on Labor Day 2007..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Fossett
It was a b&w set, we wuz poor.
I think there’s a really cool fistfight in that one, part of it was shot from a boom. I suppose ‘boom’ is apropos...
We wuz poor, too. Never even saw a TV set (I don’t mean “watched TV”,) until I was almost eight years old. When we finally got a TV, I was married before I ever watched a color TV set. What a luxury!
Still nothing found and unless it's dumb luck they won't find him.
Same for the latest guy lost in Rocky Mountain National Park. The others were found, eventually. He's been missing 18 months now and still no trace of him.
I doubt they'll find him either.
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