Flight 4422 : The Discovery Traditional Geocache
Flight 4422 : The Discovery
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Five part series put out for COAP 2011-12. Be careful to rehide as found! Muggles are everywhere
On 12 March 1948 a DC-4 carrying 30 souls crashed into Mt Sanford AK USA killing all onboard. This is a tribute to those men who lost their lives that tragic night. You are looking for camo’d container loaded w/the usual goodies.
The Plane of Gold was never officially found. The Civil Aeronautics Board’s Accident Investigation Report of 28 July 1948 states that no official visit was made to the crash site & that a DC 3 with members of the CAB and NWA flew over the crash site and observed the tail section sticking out of the snow & ice. This was also confirmed by a United States Air Force pilot form the 10th Rescue Group who flew over the site and observed the Northwest Airlines insignia on the vertical fin.
A bush pilot from the area supposedly made a landing with a ski plane and located the wreckage taking some papers. Rumours flew around Gulkana & Glennallen that Flight 4422 carried gold & many an adventurer tried his luck at discovering the wreckage! My grandmother gave me faded newspaper clippings about groups who tried to make it to this rugged area in search of Flight 4422 & the Plane of Gold, but none were successful.
It wasn’t until the early 90s that two commercial pilots & US Air Force Reserve pilots met at a training exercise. Their hobbies were to find missing/downed aircraft & since Marc Millican was a pilot for Northwest Airlines stationed in Anchorage, Flight 4422 was a natural & at the top of his list!! He shared this interest w/Kevin McGregor (a captain w/Delta Airline out of Colorado), an accomplished climber & aircraft accident investigator. They made several trips to Mt Sanford during the summers of 1993-1999.
Finally in July 1999, while on the glacier below the point of impact, they discovered enough wreckage to prove conclusively that this was the final resting place of Flight 4422. They discovered an engine sitting on top of the glacier & its serial plate was lying a few feet away & this nailed the identity. However, they made a gruesome discovery; they found human remains that had been perfectly preserved inside the glacier for over fifty years!
They spent the next ten years trying to identify the human remains and bring closure for one family. They spent many many hours researching the crew of SS Sunset & the NWA crew of Flight 4422 to dispel the rumours of gold. One of their discoveries is a sixteen foot aluminum ladder that sits on the top of the glacier. Was it abandoned by adventurers seeking the Plane of Gold? It could have been tied to the struts of a ski plane & used to cross crevices & other dangerous spots. It certainly had the marks of crampons on the rungs.
The crash site is now inside a National Park & permission must be obtained to visit. Under Federal Law, no one is permitted to neither remove any wreckage or artifacts nor touch the same under penalty of a $100,000 fine & the threat of imprisonment!!
Congrats to Madpuck & Tagalong for FTF!
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