On 26th January 1950, a Douglas C-54D Skymaster of the United States Air Force took-off from Anchorage, Alaska and headed Great Falls in Montana. After approximately two hours of flight, contact with the aeroplane was lost and no single trace of the Skymaster has ever been found.
The search and rescue operation was launched at 00:20 UTC (27th January), shortly after the C-54D missed the next scheduled radio contacts. The USAF authorities estimated the Skymaster had enough fuel to continue the flight until 10:15 UTC.
A total number of eighty-five aircraft and more than 7,000 personnel were involved in that search and rescue operation. Nevertheless, it was both desperate and chaotic. The entire territory of Yukon was covered with plenty of snow, temperatures were as low as – 40°C and assigned military crews were not trained to perform SAR activities in such severe conditions.
On 20th February the search for the C-54D was officially closed. The fate of the aircraft and forty-four people on its board remained a mystery.
(full story here)
Cover photo: Douglas C-54D Skymaster, USAF, illustrative photo / source: San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive, 01_00090724, via Flickr Commons, cropped
