Flight 2501 Disappearance

From TinWiki.org

Overtop South Haven, Michigan, on the night of June 23, 1950, Flight 2501, a 4 engine, 20 ton, DC-4 filled to capacity with 58 people vanished suddenly and unexpectedly. The fate of the craft is still unknown today. The Disappearance of Flight 2501 is one of the most perplexing mysteries of the state of Michigan.

1 Story
2 Searching
3 Theories
4 Sources

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Story

Northwest Airlines Flight 2501 in New York's La Guardia Airport was filled to its 55 passenger limit shortly before 8 PM by a Roman Catholic Priest. Pilot and Co-pilot Robert Lind and Verne Wolfe took off at 8:25 PM. By 10:52 PM, Lind reported they were on course above Battle Creek, Michigan. At 11:13 PM, Lind reported in that he was at 3,500 feet and crossing overtop South Haven's shoreline and into Lake Michigan. He could see lightning, and requested to drop 1000 feet. The air traffic controller denied this, claiming that there were already too many planes at that altitude. Lind continued to fly over Lake Michigan, his next report scheduled to be at 11:28 PM, but never reported in.

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Searching

By sunrise of June 24, thousands of Air Force, Navy, Coast Gaurd, Civil Aviation Administration, Civil Air Patrol, Northwest Airlines, and local police force boats and aircraft were underway in the search for the missing flight. Some of the theories were that the craft suddenly exploded, however there was no wreckage, debris, or pieces discovered; or that there was mechanical trouble, and that the plane went down, but there were no oil slicks, which would have happened considering the 2,500 gallons of fuel that it was carrying.

Unfortunately, clear skies and calm waters didn't help the search. A few oil slicks were found to be from passing transport ships and carriers, a few pieces of isolated pieces of debris picked up by ships were not from a Northwest Airlines airliner, and a crew of a destroyer escort who had found some oil and paper bubbling up found only rocks at the lake bottom. There was no sign that Flight 2501 had crashed in either Michigan or Wisconsin.

The second day of the search was just as fruitless until the aircraft's logbook was discovered floating ten miles due west of South Haven, along with a few scraps of clothing, a piece of blue blanket marked with the letters N.W., and, oddly, what seemed to be small pieces of human flesh.

The Coast Guard sent divers to retrieve what they believed would be the wreckage, but no sign of it had been found. Navy anti-submarine experts searched the lake bed with sophisticated military sonar, but found no signs of large metallic objects.

On June 29, 1950, the search ended. The Civil Aeronautics Board began searching as well, looking into the event extensively, but had found nothing. They officially stated there was not enough evidence to say what or what not happened to Flight 2501. A renewed search for the aircraft wreckage is being undertaken by a private joint venture operation, details can be found at http://www.northwestflight2501.org.

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Theories

The craft was hit by lightning and fell
- on the lake
- into Wisconsin
It exploded from a fuel malfunction, the flames engulfing and melting all debris, and turning the bodies into ash.
The craft was taken by aliens.
The government abducted the craft and the on board people to use as test subjects for unknown projects.
An incident involving a new type of laser of particle beam weapon disintigrated the craft.
The craft became a victim to 'The Great Lakes Triangle', a lesser-known are similar to the Bermuda Triangle.

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