� Two crashes in Alaska � 1950s � took the lives of several people whom I knew, and as far as I know, they haven't been found yet.

I'm amazed that there isn't already a plethora of conspiracy theories about the Fossett disappearance. There's certainly enough to feed such: he's a high-tech aircraft designer, multi-millionaire, and high-profile capitalist who was flying alone in Nevada. So we may soon be regaled with many oddball theories such as UFO abductions, collision with secret military craft, so-called Area 51 nonsense and more.

I have to correct myself (did a little more looking to refresh and correct my memory).

The wreckage of one of those two Alaska crashes was much later found.

Clarence Rhode was the regional director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Alaska when he disappeared in 1959. He was flying the USF&WS Grumman Goose, number N720. With him were his son Jack and wildlife agent Stan Frederickson. I knew Stan fairly well but had met the Rhodes only briefly. The older Rhode had photographed me feeding parka squirrels in the Alaska Range a couple of years before.

On their last flight, they stopped where I was working on an Arctic archaeological dig on Ogotoruk Creek, and I talked with them just before they continued and were lost. One of the largest and most extensive searches in Alaska history failed to find the wreckage of their Goose. In 1978 � nineteen years after they were lost � hikers in the Brooks Range found the wreckage.

This plane wreck was a sad, dramatic sight. It was a twin-engine plane that flew into the mountainside just short of a pass. The wreckage was a time capsule of sorts. An old book still contained clearly legible citations for wildlife violations, written in the 50s. There were boots, canned food and singed clothing. The curled propellers showed the engines had been running when the plane hit. It was easy to imagine what had happened: the pilot flying up the narrowing valley and encountering low clouds so he couldn't see ahead and with not enough room to turn around. He was only about 100 vertical feet from the top of the pass. Update: I was fascinated to learn the story of this wreckage from the folks at ANWR. In 1958, Clarence Rhode, director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Alaska, disappeared on a patrol flight along with his son Jack and Stanley Fredericksen, a game agent. Rhode was a widely respected man, and the largest search ever conducted in Alaska was launched. Up to 28 aircraft and 260 people were involved. The mystery of the disappearance of this Grumman Goose N-720 wasn't solved until backpackers discovered the wreckage in 1979. You can see a photo of Mr. Rhode and this aircraft here

� I saw a program on one of the documentary channels a while back. � I think the site of the crash was a glacier in Argentina. No crash was ever found even though they had a very good idea of the location. It appeared as if the glacier had swallowed all evidence.

Well, it seems that was exactly the case, as about sixty years later the glacier started spitting airplane parts and frozen remains from its face. As the ice moved down the valley and melted, it delivered up the crash. But it was no longer anywhere near the surface. �

� on August 2, 1947, the Stardust, with eleven people on board took from Buenos Aires for Santiago. It was a routine flight for the British South American Airways plane. The weather was deteriorating and later would approach blizzard conditions, but it wasn�t so bad that the captain, Reginald Cook thought he needed to cancel the flight.

At 5:33 p.m. the radio operator Dennis Harmer sent a message to the Santiago Tower that they were slightly behind schedule but they believed they would arrive at the airfield in about twelve minutes. Then, at 5:41, Harmer made the last transmission. It said, "ETA Santiago, 17:45 hours. Stendec."

In the Santiago Tower, the operator didn�t understand the last word and asked that it be repeated. It was. Twice. Stendec. No one knew what that meant. It was also the last word ever heard from the aircraft. It had simply vanished from the face of the Earth.

Because of a snow storm, the search for the aircraft couldn�t begin until August 3. At first, given the position provided by the aircraft, the search centered near Santiago. When nothing was found there, the search was expanded but no trace of the aircraft was found. At least none was found in 1953.

Nearly forty-seven years later, in January, 2000, five mountaineers, climbing the rugged Mount Tupungato in Argentina, discovered the wreckage of an old aircraft. They also found the remains of three people. The Argentine Army sent an expedition into the area, which is so rugged that the soldiers had to hike the last few miles because even the burros were unable to make it. Using serial numbers from the engines and other bits of wreckage, they identified the aircraft as the long missing Stardust.

The aircraft, not fifty miles from Santiago as the pilots had believed and still over the Andes, was caught in the snow. The pilot, thinking he was approaching Santiago, but with no visual evidence outside the cockpit, began to descend. Unfortunately, their navigation was off and rather than being over the relatively flat ground near the Santiago airport, were still in the mountains. Tragically, they flew into the side of a mountain glacier. The show covered the wreckage during the night, concealing it from the aerial search along the flight route. Then, slowly the glacier swallowed all remnants of the aircraft. For fifty years that wreckage "flowed" downhill with the glacier. It finally flowed to the surface a couple of miles down the mountain. It was here, on a plateau, the wreckage was exposed and discovered.

The army expedition uncovered more wreckage, retrieved the remains of most of the victims some of whom were identified using DNA techniques, and confirmed the identity of the aircraft. The mystery of the Stardust had been solved... Well, most of it. No one has ever figured out what the strange word sent by Harmer meant. It is the only mystery about the crash that remains.

This one?



Photo of the "Stardust"

Brooks Range Traverse

Interesting stuff to be sure.

I do quite a bit of flying, well, riding in the right seat anyway, across UT, NV, and CO. These stories sure make a guy think. Western NV is the closest thing I've seen to Afghanistan in the U.S. I wonder what else they'll find out there...
SD

Any sign of Fossett yet?