1952 Mount Gannett C-124 Debris Field

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Approximate location.

A US Air Force Douglas C-124 Globemaster II crashed into the Mount Gannett, some 14 miles away, on November 22, 1952. All of the 52 people on board--a crew of 11 and 41 Army and Air Force passengers--were killed. The plane was flying from McChord Air Base, Washington to Elmendorf Air Force Base when it encountered bad weather and heavy clouds. The C-124 was flying without visual references, using just altitude, a radio beacon and a stopwatch.

Due to the severe weather, a search could not be mounted until three days later on November 25th. The wreckage was finally spotted on November 28th when Terris Moore from the Fairbanks Civil Air Patrol and Lieutenant Thomas Sullivan from the 10th Air Rescue Squadron spotted the tail section sticking out of the snow.

Moore theorized that the plane hit Mount Gannett at full speed, apparently slid down the cliffs, and exploded. This explosion possibly triggered avalanches that had buried remains, making full recovery impossible. The recovery effort was terminated after a week and the victims' families were told they would have no remains to bury. The debris was then covered by snow and ice, and was lost for the next 60 years.

On June 9, 2012, an Alaska Army National Guard Black Hawk helicopter crew on a training mission noticed a large yellow canister on the surface of the Colony Glacier. Retrieved items were identified as belonging to the C-124 crash.

The recovery operation was then taken over by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, whose primary role is to search for US military personnel missing overseas. On June 18, 2014, after two seasons of operations on the glacier, the Department of Defense announced that the remains of 17 of the victims had been identified and would be returned to their families for burial.

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