A Recovery Mission Continues—Nearly Seven Decades Later

In 1952, a C-124 flew straight into a remote Alaskan mountain top, killing all aboard. Here’s the story of what it’s taking to bring them home.

Kimberly Johnson

Thursday, November 11, 2021 at 12:32 PM ET

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In the 1950s, the C-124 was the largest cargo aircraft the U.S. had in its arsenal. Courtesy: National Museum of the U.S. Air Force

Key Takeaways:

A 1952 C-124 military transport plane crashed into Mount Gannett, Alaska, killing all 52 service members aboard, with wreckage and remains initially deemed unrecoverable due to severe conditions and an avalanche.
In 2012, debris and human remains began emerging from Colony Glacier, leading to complex and costly ongoing recovery efforts that have identified fragmented remains of most victims.
The incident created "ambiguous loss" for families and spurred advocacy for a dedicated military agency to track and recover service members lost in non-combat incidents, a role not currently fulfilled by the Department of Defense.

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Airman Issac Anderson *Courtesy: Tonja Anderson-Dell*

On the afternoon of November 22, 1952, and while sitting at McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, Washington, awaiting a transport flight to his next duty station, Airman Isaac Anderson took advantage of what time he had left. He pulled out paper to write a letter home to his wife, Dorothy, who was more than 3,000 miles away at their home in Tampa, Florida.

The 22-year-old had been in the service for less than two years, joining the U.S. Air Force as the service began desegregation. He was motivated to enlist in order to provide a better life for his wife and their son—his namesake—who was celebrating his second birthday in two months.