Earlier this year, it was called “the most mysterious airline disaster in American history.” [1]
The story centers around the question of “why Northwest Orient Flight 2501 vanished, taking the lives of all 58 people on board.” It was “the worst air disaster in US history at the time …, and it remains the only large, commercial plane in US history to go missing.” [2]
Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2501 was a DC-4 prop-liner that flew daily transcontinental routes connecting the east coast of New York City to the far west coast of Seattle, Washington when it disappeared on the night of June 23, 1950.
As National Aviation History Month draws to a close, some key dates help put this into perspective. [3]
Brothers Orville and Wilber Wright had made their transformative flight at Kittyhawk in the waning weeks of 1903. Almost a quarter century later, Charles Lindbergh soloed from Long Island to Paris. [4,5]
Northwest Airways (as it was originally known, got its start in 1926 with delivery of mail between Chicago and Minneapolis-St Paul. Modest passenger service for the company began a year later. The Douglas Aircraft DC-4 becamse a part of this timeline in 1946 when it entered commercial service. [6,7]
Discovery Channel series “Expedition Unknown” took its viewers back to 1950 with a modern flight onboard a peer to NWA Flight 2501 equipment in its Season 8 program titled “America’s Lost Flight.” Much like the current Yankee Air Museum “Fatal Crossing Traveling Exhibit” developed to capture its essence, the “America’s Lost Flight” episode teamed with Fatal Crossing book author and Founder, Director of The Michigan Shipwreck Research Association, Valerie van Heest, for framework and key details. [8-15]
Akin to the culminating exhibit of their “Deep Landings” gallery, visitors should expect to walk into an immersive experience when they enter the “Fatal Crossing Traveling Exhibit.” Unlike “Deep Landings,” however, there is nothing to parallel the Douglas SBD-3 Dauntless as centerpiece. [16]
The final resting place for what remains of NWA Flight 2501 remain a mystery to this day.
It seems then that a central purpose of “The Fatal Crossings Traveling Exhibit” is to provide a feeling for the sort of obsession that keeps the search for answers alive.
Another look at the map with plots of her last known check points from point of origin. Contemporaneous news reports scrutinized for additional clues perhaps missed. Moments of pause and quiet within inches of recovered artificts forever silent, despite having been =there.
“Fatal Crossings” will close at the end of December 2020. Exhibition is included with the price of admission to Yankee Air Museum (see website for current schedule and requirements due to COVID-19).
References
- “Expedition Unknown exclusive: What happened to Northwest Orient Flight 2501 over Lake Michigan?” April Neale (February 11, 2020) Monsters & Critics.
- “The Mystery of Northwest Flight 2501” (February 18, 2020) Discovery.
- “National Aviation History Month: November 2020” (November 2020) United States Census Bureau.
- “1903 – The First Flight” National Park Service, United States of America.
- “The Flight” Charles Lindbergh: An American Aviator.
- “NWA History” Airlines Northwest.
- “DC-4/C-54 Skymaster Transport” Boeing.
- “The Disappearance of Northwest Flight 2501 | Expedition Unknown” Discovery (October 10, 2020) YouTube.
- Yankee Air Museum (home page).
- “Fatal Crossing Traveling Exhibit” (January through December 2020) Yankee Air Museum.
- “Fatal Crossing: The Mysterious Disappearance of NWA Flight 2501 and the Quest for Answers” VO van Heest (June 1, 2013) Amazon.
- “Fatal Crossing: The Mysterious Disappearance of NWA Flight 2501 and the Quest for Answers” Valerie van Heest, Goodreads.
- Michigan Shipwreck Research Association (home page).
- Valerie van Heest (home page).
- “Valerie van Heest: Fatal Crossing” Kalamazoo Public Library (October 7, 2013) YouTube.
- “Deep Landings Exhibit Opening: Yankee Air Museum” (November 6, 2019) Aviation Photo Journalist Eric Dumigan.
