MYTH OF FLIGHT 2501 – Episode 1: Disappeared on the lake

During the long history of the civil aviation industry in the world, there were 2 missing aircraft that have not been found to date. These were Malaysia Airlines MH 370 and Northwest Airlines NW 2501, USA.

NW 2501 before the disaster and Captain Lind.

1. The story begins on Friday night, June 23, 1950 at La Guardia Airport, New York, USA. The weather was warm when 55 passengers, including 27 women, 22 men and 6 children, boarded a DC-4 4-turboprop aircraft, number 2501 of Northwest Airlines, from New York to Seattle (state Washington). Estimated flight time is 6 hours at 660km / h.

At 19:30, the 2501 took off. The captain of this flight is Robert C. Lind, the first co-pilot is Verne F. Wolfe, both 35 years old, and the third and last person in the crew is flight attendant Bonnie Ann Feldman, 25 years old. .

Passing Cleveland, Ohio, the 2501 continues to fly to Minneapolis, Minnesota at 3,000 meters. As she prepared to approach the city airspace of Battle Creek, Michigan at 22:41, the Chicago Air Traffic Control Center ordered Captain Lind to lower the altitude to 2,500m to avoid another plane flying in the direction. opposite.

At 11:36, the 2501 reached Lake Michigan. Upon receiving news from the Chicago Air Traffic Control Center that a storm was forming on the lake, Captain Lind asked to lower the altitude to 1,500 meters but was rejected because at such a height, the plane could will not stand the gust of wind.

At 11:51 p.m., the 2501 entered the fringes of a storm that was growing stronger. Captain Lind reported via radio that the plane would arrive in Milwaukee before 0:30 a.m. on June 24. About 10 minutes later, Lind once again asked to lower the altitude to 1,000m but did not give specific reason. The Chicago Air Traffic Control Center’s answer was still: “No way!”

That was Captain Lind’s last contact with the ground. On the other side of Lake Michigan, the Milwaukee Air Traffic Control Station, after waiting until 1 in the morning, still did not see the 2501 radio signal to New York, Minneapolis and Chicago. Immediately, the Civil Aviation Administration’s radio stations attempted to communicate with 2501 on all frequencies but to no avail. Flight 2501 is missing!

2.5:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 24, the US Civil Aviation Administration officially announced the complete loss of contact with the 2501. They also said that the amount of fuel on the plane was completely exhausted by that time so it could no longer fly, and issued an emergency search order to the navy, the coast guard and the state police from Illinois to Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana. Thirteen hours later, at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, the Coast Guard ship commanded by Captain Woodbine saw an oil slick and some debris allegedly from a 2501, floating on the surface of Lake Michigan. At 5:30 a.m. on Sunday, June 25, the sonar machine of the US Navy ship led by Captain Daniel Joy was near the oil spill, and found some objects that reflected very strong sonar waves. However, scuba diving conducted by a naval clone showed that it was not the wreck of the plane, but that of a shipwreck.

Also on Sunday, the Coast Guard fleet consisting of four ships led by Woodbine, Mackinaw, Hollyhock and Frederick Lee recovered many floating debris, including fuel tank fragments, seat pads, clothing pieces. , blankets, luggage and some parts of the corpse but not a single piece of debris was large enough to confirm it fell from the 2501. Investigators speculate that the 2501 exploded in the sky because of their followers. The aircraft twisted when it fell into a gust of wind, causing a spark to burn the fuel tank. Prosecutor Berrien Louis Kerlikowski and US Coast Guard officials said: “It must be a terrible explosion to tear the passenger body in an unimaginable way.” However, residents of Lake Michigan said that on the night of June 23 and 24, they heard no explosions except for the testimony of a retired naval lieutenant, RT Helm.

According to Mr. Helm, he saw an airplane passing through his house at 12:20 a.m. and then a flash of light accompanied by a terrifying explosion. However, compared to Captain Lind’s last contact at 0:01 when he requested to lower the altitude to 1,000 meters and the speed of the plane, by 0: 20 minutes, the 2501 had passed out of Lake Michigan and is in Milwaukee airspace. The divers’ search during the following days was also fruitless, partly because the bottom of Lake Michogan was muddy, and the visibility was limited. In addition, many of the large objects detected by the sonar are not those of the 2501.

In July, a local fisherman, Wallace Chambers, pulled the net onto a small, distorted piece of metal. Analysis of the US Civil Aviation Commission led to suspicion that this piece of metal belonged to the 2501, but during World War II, the US military used more than 3,000 DC-4s and by the end of the war, nearly 600 the aircraft became a civil aircraft with identical construction, so the wreckage recovered by Wallace Chambers said nothing.

Six months after the disappearance of Flight 2501, after thoroughly analyzing all the collected specimens, the US Civil Aviation Commission officially concluded this was a “catastrophe without any cause”.

From there, over time, the incident sank into oblivion until science invented advanced detectors, which could restore the model of the seabed, river, lake, with all the details in on the bottom the search for the 2501 begins to restart.

DRAW HIGH