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The Mysterious Disappearance of Cessna N1812H
Congressmen Hale Boggs and Nick Begich boarded a small plane for a flight from Anchorage to Juneau and were never see again. Did their aircraft go down in bad weather, or did something more sinister happen to their plane?
When you picture Alaska, what do you see? Do you imagine rugged mountains, waves crashing into sheer cliffs, roaring rivers, steep glaciers, deep canyons, and rolling tundra? Alaska is all of this and more, and it is a thrill to fly over this stunning scenery on a clear, summer day. Take this geography, shroud it in fog and add some wind, though, and a beautiful plane ride turns into a harrowing adventure.
Plane crashes are far too common in Alaska, and a majority of these accidents are due, at least in part, to poor weather conditions. If commercial pilots refused to fly in marginal weather, they would not make money because the weather is often bad in Alaska. For those of us who live or work in remote areas, we must fly in small planes, and we can’t always pick our weather.
This past week, a de Havilland Otter crashed into a mountain near Ketchikan when the pilot became disoriented in the fog. Miraculously, the passengers and pilot all survived. Not all plane-crash stories have a happy ending, but most downed aircraft are found within a matter of hours. Still, mysteries abound in Alaska about airplanes t hat took off and were never seen again. The following is a story of one of the most famous airplane disappearances in the history of the state.
On October 16th, 1972, a Cessna 310 with the tail number N1812H operated by Pan Alaska Airways disappeared somewhere between Anchorage and Juneau, Alaska. The plane was piloted by Don Jonz, 38, the chief pilot for Pan Alaska. Jonz was a military veteran with more than 17,000 hours of flight time. The passengers on the plane were Alaska Congressman Nick Begich, 40, his aide Russell Brown, 37, and Louisiana Congressman Hale Boggs, 58, the U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader. The three men were planning to attend an election rally for Begich in Juneau.
