1950 Douglas C-54D disappearance

Aircraft disappearance 1950 Douglas C-54D-1-DC disappearance Incident Squadron Activity Report, Maxwell Airforce Base, March 1946.jpg 42-72469, the aircraft involved, seen in 1946 26 January 1950 Disappearance Yukon, Canada; in vicinity of Snag Douglas C-54 Skymaster United States Air Force 42-72469 Elmendorf Air Force Base (EDF) (EDF/PAED), Anchorage, Alaska, USA Great Falls Air Force Base (GFA) (GFA/KGFA), Montana, USA 44 36 8 44 0 On 26 January 1950, the Douglas C-54 Skymaster serial number 42-72469 disappeared en route from Alaska to Montana, with 44 people aboard.Ranter Harro Lujan, Fabian I. http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19500126-0 Douglas C-54D-1-DC 42-72469 Snag, YT 2008 2011-06-19Kennebec Matt http://1000aircraftphotos.com/Contributions/10054.htm Douglas DC-4 C-54D 2010 2011-06-19 2011-09-26 https://web.archive.org/web/20110926125738/http://1000aircraftphotos.com/Contributions/10054.htm dead The aircraft made its last radio contact two hours into its eight-hour flight. Despite one of the largest rescue efforts carried out by a joint effort between Canadian and US military forces, as of 2026, no trace of the aircraft has been found. Flight The aircraft was part of the First Strategic Support Squadron, Strategic Air Command, out of Biggs AFB, Texas. In addition to its eight-man crew, it was carrying 36 passengers, including two civilians: a woman and her infant son.http://www.ruudleeuw.com/search137.htm Whatever did happen to C-54 Skymaster 42-72469? Ruudleeuw.com 2025-12-28 An earlier attempt to depart had been made, but due to trouble with one of its four engines, it was delayed several hours.Operation Mike: The disappearance of a Skymaster over the Yukon http://www.thedailyobserver.ca/2010/02/04/operation-mike-the-disappearance-of-a-skymaster-over-the-yukon Sean Chase February 4, 2010 The Daily Observer October 30, 2016 June 29, 2018 https://web.archive.org/web/20180629155833/http://www.thedailyobserver.ca/2010/02/04/operation-mike-the-disappearance-of-a-skymaster-over-the-yukon dead The flight was from Anchorage, Alaska, to Great Falls, Montana. Two hours after its eventual departure, the flight marked its first scheduled check-in over Snag, Yukon, where the pilot reported that the plane was on schedule with no issues to report except for ice on the wings. However, the flight never checked in with its second destination, Aishihik, Yukon, and was never heard from again. Search North America 1 left 250 A map of the North Sea Location map North America 61 -149 top Elmendorf Air Force Base North America 47 -111 bottom Great Falls Air Force Base North America 62 -140 right Snag, Yukon After the plane failed to arrive in Montana, a search-and-rescue effort launched, combining as many as 85 American and Canadian planes, in addition to 7,000 personnel, searching 350000 mi2 of the Pacific Northwest. The search was aided by the fact that soldiers and equipment had already been ferried north for the upcoming Exercise Sweetbriar, a joint Canada–U.S. war games scenario.https://speeches.empireclub.org/details.asp?ID=62437 Exercise Sweetbriar Empire Club of Canada 1950-03-30 2017-06-20 The operation confounded searchers, giving many false positive reports of smoke signals and garbled radio communications. Search efforts were hindered by the lack of pilot training in search-and-rescue tactics; defined search patterns were not used, for example.Leyland Cecco, Can a new film help solve Canada's 70-year mystery of vanished US plane?, The Guardian (August 31, 2020). Three planes crashed during the search mission; although all crew survived, the incidents reflected the dangers of the Yukon terrain: On 30 January, a C-47, Air Force serial number 45-1015 from the 57th Fighter Wing, that had been participating in the search, stalled and crashed in the McClintoc mountains near Whitehorse. Its crew members were injured, but there were no fatalities. The pilot walked 13 km to the Alaska Highway and flagged down a truck to call in support for his 5–8 crewmates.A search for answers, The Troy Messenger (April 6, 2012). On 7 February, a C-47D, 45-1037, from Eielson Air Force Base employed on the search by the 5010th Wing, crashed on a mountain slope south of Aishihik Lake. There were ten crew members on board, but there were no fatalities.USAF Accident Report 50-02-07-005 On 16 February, a Royal Canadian Air Force C-47, KJ-936, crashed near Snag. Again, its four crew members sustained only light injuries.RCAF Investigation No.2618 Later its wreckage would be temporarily mistaken for the missing C-54.http://www.ruudleeuw.com/search116.htm Abandoned Plane Wrecks of the (Arctic) North Ruudleeuw.com 2025-12-28 On 2 February it was reported that two planes and two radio stations in the Yukon area had heard unintelligible radio signals, including some near the plane's failed second check-in town of Aishihik, but attempts to acquire a source were fruitless. Likewise, an isolated settler had reported seeing a large plane over his cabin at Beaver Lake in the interior of British Columbia located 500 mi south of the Yukon boundary-250 mi northeast of Vancouver and 200 mi west of the Alaska Highway air route.https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1454&dat=19500202&id=gG1gAAAAIBAJ&sjid=63ENAAAAIBAJ&pg=3035,616233&hl=en Weather blights big air search Wilmington Morning Star February 2, 1950 The operation was indefinitely suspended on 14 February, as the search planes were sent to the Gulf of Alaska to search for a missing B-36 bomber which had been carrying a Mark 4 nuclear bomb, though this bomb did not have a radioactive core. (The B-36 wreckage was subsequently located.)New group will search for U.S. military plane that disappeared over the Yukon in 1950, CBC News (March 31, 2022). Aftermath On 20 February 1950, the search was officially cancelled and notifications were sent to next of kin informing them that the passengers were presumed dead.http://ns2.iagenweb.org/boards/sioux/obituaries/index.cgi?read=300545 https://web.archive.org/web/20140714181700/http://ns2.iagenweb.org/boards/sioux/obituaries/index.cgi?read=300545 dead 2014-07-14 Dagle, Donald W., 1928–1950 Ns2.iagenweb.org 2017-06-20 In 2012, the descendants of the missing servicemen started a petition to the Federal government, through the We the People petition system, seeking to resurrect the search for their families' remains.http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2012/05/family-of-missing-wva-pilot-seeks-to.html Kathryn's Report: Family of missing West Virginia pilot seeks to reopen search for Air Force plane that vanished in 1950 2012-05-23 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20120619073216/http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2012/05/family-of-missing-wva-pilot-seeks-to.html 2012-06-19 In 2020, Andrew Gregg was named as the director of an upcoming documentary about the search for the aircraft, Skymaster Down.https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/31/canada-plane-crash-mystery-documentary Can a new film help solve Canada's 70-year mystery of vanished US plane? The Guardian August 31, 2020 The documentary was aired in Canada on 16 January 2022, on the CBC's Documentary Channel.https://www.cbc.ca/documentarychannel/docs/skymaster-down Skymaster Down CBC 2022-01-16 2022-03-11 In 2022, after the documentary's release, a group in Whitehorse, consisting of a geologist, a historian and a glaciologist, among others, formed to conduct a renewed search for the missing aircraft, using drones to explore inaccessible locations. See also List of missing aircraft List of accidents and incidents involving the Douglas DC-4 References 2 External links Baugher Joe http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1942_4.html 1942 Serial Numbers 42-70686 to 42-91973 2011 2011-06-19 https://web.archive.org/web/20110713112317/http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1942_4.html 13 July 2011 live Aviation Safety database Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in 1950 Category:Missing aircraft Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in Canada Category:1950 in Canada Category:Canada–United States relations Category:Accidents and incidents involving United States Air Force aircraft Category:Disasters in Yukon Category:1950 in Yukon Category:January 1950 in Canada Category:Aviation accidents and incidents involving the Douglas DC-4