Radar Contact Lost: The Podcast
"Radar Contact Lost: The Podcast" will discuss the tragic circumstances involved with some of the worst airplane crashes. When weather conditions are at fault or are a contributing factor to the accident (as is so often the case), the meteorology will be examined and explained. Hosted by a meteorologist with 40 years of professional experience including U.S. Air Force, broadcast and commercial meteorology. The Radar Contact Lost team includes experts from the fields of commercial meteorology, commercial aviation and air traffic control.
Radar Contact Lost: The Podcast
When the Mysterious Crash of Northwest Orient Flight 293 left No Survivors and No Airplane
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On a pleasant Monday morning in June, 1963, a Douglas DC-7C departed from McCord Air Force Base in Washington state. The plane was loaded with military members of the United States Armed Forces. The destination was Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska. The airliner never reached its destination.
What exactly happened to this airliner remains a mystery. However, several theories hold some elements of reality. Though, like many fantastic or tragic stories with too few answers, there is at least one theory that will keep us on the edge of our seats.
A rescue effort reached the crash site within hours, yet no plane was found and no bodies were found. What was found did little to dispel the most dramatic of those theories, though the small amount of wreckage couldn’t fully support any of the possible outcomes – conspiracy, or otherwise.
This is the mysterious story of Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 293, a civilian commercial airliner contracted by the United States government to transport military service members and their families to their new homes and their new jobs on the front lines of the Cold War. With no real evidence but a small amount of wreckage, several theories have gained strength over the decades. One theory is that the airliner was shot down by a missile fired by a United States Air Force fighter jet.
Most peculiar, is that the U.S. government is prohibited from looking for this plane and those on board. This is not because the whereabouts are unknown, or that the cost would be too high. It is because of one sentence in one regulation, what has become known as the Civilian Charter Loophole.
Join Radar Contact Lost for this special in-depth look at the strange case of Flight 293. We'll visit the Gulf of Alaska, have a lesson in aviation meteorology, and drop in on Washington, DC where the Flight 293 Remembrance Act is in front of Congress today.
