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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Ideas & Questions

Published: 07 December 2019

Hits: 1288

Still obsessing about the 1950 disappearance of the C-54D.

Looking at Satellite maps, reading the original articles. And it comes to my attention - duh - that there are an awful lot of red herrings. Like the mention of the children spotting a plane near Vilna. Nope, there's no hiding a plane that big in the wilds of Vilna.

Then there's the report of the ranger near Minot, Y.T., who reported seeing the plane and then hearing a dull thud or boom. First of all, there's no Minot Y.T.. There's a Minto, which is a ways out of what should have been it's flight path. And - if the plane had exploded in mid-air, somebody would have by now found something. A plane flying at 6,000 feet is going to leave a large trail of debris.

Soon you realize that every report essentially contradicts every other report. So, work out a map, a logical workflow of what might have happened.

2 Possibilities, that break down into a number of others.

#1) - The plane flew off course and into the side of a mountain. It's a big country, it's safe, though, I think, to say it must have been off course because it's a well traveled air corridor. Someone in the intervening 70 years would have spotted something - even flying into the side of a mountain creates a debris field. And while the winter snows would have shortly covered it in the spring pilots would have been looking. If this is what occurred then all of the reported distress calls are red herrings. The plane was to have reported by radio at Aishihik Lake - the fact that it didn't report suggests the accident happened before there.

There is another theory - one that takes the plane as far south as Cranbrook - which you can read up on here: https://pacaeropress.websitetoolbox.com/post/missing-yukon-c54d-4272469-2043123?&trail=45. To summarize the poster suggests that the problem with the engine wasn't fixed, causing the electrics in the plane to be shut down for the flight. If you accept this then the pilots could have made the judgement call to continue flying with radio silence in hopes of reaching their destination, only to get hung up high in the mountains above Jaffray or Waterton. Again - these areas see a lot more traffic than the Yukon - I would imagine - by now - something should have been found. That said if his theory about radio silence is true the plane could be down anywhere between Watson Lake and Cranbrook - which is a big territory, and would lend credibility to some of the other sightings.

#2) - This - I believe - is the most probable. That the plane after suffering some engine trouble set down upon a lake. There may have been survivors - there may not have been. Best guesses for lakes would be Wellesley or Sekulmun Lake. Maybe Tincup or Kluane. If it was further than Aishihik lake I would have expected they would have made radio contact or been sighted. That leaves Wellesley or Sekulmun Lake. This still leaves the problem of the distress signals (presuming survivors) - One would expect that someone would have triangulated the signal to the lake - it's not so far off course (at all), but the searchers note that you would have to be "on top" of the plane to get a clear signal. The snow and subsequent weather conditions covered the plane wreck over. Come spring it sank to the bottom. 

And while poring over the satellite maps I listen to Coast to Coast, the callers are always the best part, congratulating George Noory on being an "adequate" replacement for Art Bell, one describing the details of the Intergalactic treaty we signed in 1996, another talking about a spaceship filled with dark skinned African American type aliens, 6'4" tall, BIG weapons, threatening Ronald Reagan, he was there, that's how he knows, and the underlying psychology and symbolism makes you laugh out loud. More podcasts and paranormal radio in a similar vein, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pculNLpBcAI, there's David Paulides, whose books on "inexplicable disappearances" are, with the help of Google (I have to find another default search engine...or maybe a Private VPN?) - frequently very explicable and often mundane, less "disappearances" than "the body has yet to be recovered",  his "I'm not saying it was Bigfoot or Aliens, you have to make up your own mind...", is leading the listener to paranoid springs. The host - Jeffrey Gonzales, is absolutely perfect, plugging all natural soap to 'squatchers, the reason they're not bringing in the bounty is doubtless because of that scented artificial city soap, ...

These shows, perfect companions for late nights when you should be in bed, late nights out driving, or looking perplexedly at satellite maps, they're a sort of contemporary mysticism built upon fear, unease, paranoia, that there's more out there than we know (but the government does), it's easier to be afraid than contemplate any larger worldviews, mystical or otherwise, these mysterious vanishings, they're cautionary tales to stay with the herd, run with the group, don't go out alone, Paulides, he talks about the disappearance of "Scholars or Academic Types" - it's own category, as if that makes them better woodsmen, or less likely to struggle with mental illness or depression ...

In the end coming back to George Noory, and I realize that when he's your comforting voice of reason you've got problems...

Obituary from the C-54D Crash:  https://web.archive.org/web/20140714181700/http://ns2.iagenweb.org/boards/sioux/obituaries/index.cgi?read=300545

Better Maps: https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/

Archived Edmonton Journal: (Note not all editions are available): https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=gYAb_yFic6IC&dat=19500203&b_mode=2&hl=en - Note how much better written and how much more cosmopolitan the worldview is - in 1950 - than it is today.