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As glacier melts, secrets of lost military plane revealed
An Alaska glacier is exposing remains from a military air tragedy six decades later. (news.yahoo.com) More...
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Captain America??
It was buried under the glacier. How many planes have crashed in Alaska that haven't been seen again? Look at how far that glacier has moved since they found the plane again. It's entirely possible that they looked but the glacier moved it and they didn't find it.
In South America there was a similar case with a BA airplane, the Star Dust.
We probably have planes crashed in every state that haven't been seen again. I just can't think of many that had 52 people on them. That is what seems strange to me. Flight 19, Earhart, Glen Miller, etc. were never forgotten and have had people looking since they disappeared. The P-38 "Glacier Girl" was recovered from under 250' of ice after moving all over the place. It took a tremendous effort to get it. Its not a big deal. I just wunder why 52 missing people had to be discovered again.
I know the Korean War was going on, but it seems odd that someone said;"Oh well, the weather has gone to hell and this might be tough so lets just forget about those 52 guys."
They didn't "forget" about them, they couldn't get to the wreck site at the time. Helicopter technology was still in its infancy, and they didn't have heavy lift helos, and what they did have had trouble flying in the region (similar to today's helos). Combine that with the winters they have up there, and by the time they could get to them the wreckage was covered up.
By the early 60's we had enough helo technology to get to the site. Sure they would of had to look but they didn't try. The whole point of looking for something is because you can't see it. If nothing else, it would have been a great test and training. By that time though Viet-Nam had their attention and glacial operations were very low on the to do list. It was forgotten until stumbled upon.
They did look, they couldn't locate the crash for 2 reasons, 1) it was buried under atleast 80 feet of compacted snow and ice. 2) The crash site move atleast 200feet down the valley every year as it did once it was located last year. And helo technology has nothing to do with locating crash sites which are buried over long periods of time.
You've never heard of HELO, Hidden Element Locating Operations? Just kidding Frank. Knowing only what I have read, I figured helicopters were the best or only way to get to the site to begin a search. In 1952 sending a ground party probably endangered more lives so it was not an option.
Amen; I bet if there had been a Kennedy or a Fossett aboard, the SAR effort would've been bigger.
