1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,000
58 people went missing and families have never gotten closer.

2
00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:10,000
We're not looking for the perfect outline of a plane.

3
00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:15,000
No, this thing broke up either on impact or with an explosion in the air.

4
00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:18,000
This changes everything.

5
00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:22,000
So put another way, there's probably an airplane wreck somewhere in there.

6
00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:28,000
Based on all of the evidence, this is where we have to search.

7
00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:30,000
Got plans tomorrow?

8
00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:31,000
I do now.

9
00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:43,000
Oh, something down there.

10
00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:44,000
This could be it.

11
00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:45,000
That could be the plane.

12
00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:48,000
I can see something dark down there.

13
00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:50,000
Wait, what is that?

14
00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:01,000
As you might imagine, I fly a lot.

15
00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:03,000
Like, a lot.

16
00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:07,000
From jumbo jets to puddle jumpers, if it flies, I've probably been on it.

17
00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:10,000
And like the rest of the world, I was shocked a few years ago

18
00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:14,000
at the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

19
00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:20,000
How could something as massive as a commercial passenger plane just go missing?

20
00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:24,000
Even more surprising, this was not a singular tragedy.

21
00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:28,000
It happened before, right here in the United States.

22
00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:33,000
In the early hours of June 24th, 1950,

23
00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:37,000
a Northwest Airlines DC-4 with 58 souls aboard

24
00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:40,000
was en route between New York and Minneapolis

25
00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:44,000
when she vanished into thin air over the waters of Lake Michigan.

26
00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:46,000
Never to be seen again.

27
00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:52,000
At the time, it was the worst aviation disaster in U.S. history.

28
00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:55,000
And even today, Northwest Airlines Flight 2501

29
00:01:55,000 --> 00:02:00,000
is the only large U.S. commercial airliner that remains missing.

30
00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:03,000
And yet most people know nothing about it.

31
00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:10,000
However, a team of experts has doggedly searched for 15 years,

32
00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:15,000
hoping to find answers and provide closure for the next few years.

33
00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:20,000
They've been able to find answers for the families of the victims.

34
00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:24,000
Now, they've narrowed down the area of a possible crash site

35
00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:29,000
and new technology may finally pinpoint the exact location of the wreckage.

36
00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:35,000
So I'm taking to the skies on a mission of remembrance

37
00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:41,000
and a quest to uncover the truth behind America's forgotten aviation mystery,

38
00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:44,000
Northwest 2501.

39
00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:48,000
The first to escape.

40
00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:50,000
Explorer.

41
00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:52,000
Adventurer.

42
00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:56,000
And a guy who ends up in some very strange situations.

43
00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:59,000
That was exciting.

44
00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:03,000
With a degree in archeology and a passion for the unexplained,

45
00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:05,000
I traveled to the ends of the earth,

46
00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:08,000
investigating the greatest legends in history.

47
00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:12,000
This is Expedition Unknown.

48
00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:22,000
Our story begins at a familiar place, in a time nearly forgotten.

49
00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:29,000
New York's LaGuardia Airport in the Golden Age of Aviation, June 23, 1950.

50
00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:34,000
A friendly flight crew helps passengers check in.

51
00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:38,000
A man pays for his seat on the spot by personal check.

52
00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:42,000
A child carries her doll on her first airplane trip.

53
00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:49,000
But what the 55 passengers aboard don't know is that this is no normal flight.

54
00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:54,000
It is Northwest Airlines Flight 2501.

55
00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:59,000
And in less than five hours, it will vanish off the face of the earth.

56
00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:09,000
To find out what happened to America's missing airliner,

57
00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:13,000
I traveled to Minneapolis, Minnesota.

58
00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:18,000
I like to think of the larger of the Twin Cities as the Paris of the Upper Central Midwest.

59
00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:25,000
And for 76 years, Minneapolis was the headquarters for what was once one of the world's largest airlines.

60
00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:35,000
We give you half the world, a Northwest Airlines.

61
00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:41,000
Though the company was swallowed up by Delta in 2010, everything that's left is here,

62
00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:45,000
in a museum covering almost a century of aviation history,

63
00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:48,000
tended over by former Northwest employee Bruce Kitt.

64
00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:51,000
Welcome to the Northwest Airlines History Center, Josh.

65
00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:54,000
I'm an aviation nerd, so I gotta say I'm in heaven here.

66
00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:56,000
Oh, you're gonna love this place.

67
00:04:56,000 --> 00:05:00,000
This is awesome. So, okay, this huge airline started when and where and how?

68
00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:05,000
Started here in Minnesota, 1926 in St. Paul.

69
00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:10,000
And like all airlines back then, started carrying the mail for the post office.

70
00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:12,000
And what's the fleet look like back then?

71
00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:16,000
The fleet, lower your expectations, two rented by planes.

72
00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:22,000
In many ways, the story of Northwest is the story of commercial aviation itself.

73
00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:27,000
Frontier years of mail and cargo service give way to the passenger era.

74
00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:32,000
And suddenly, the world is accessible to people in a way never before imagined.

75
00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:34,000
An incredible evolution.

76
00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:40,000
Well, you look at three passengers here, by the time you get to the Boeing 747, you're pushing 400.

77
00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:41,000
All in less than a century.

78
00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:43,000
All in less than a century.

79
00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:45,000
Let's talk about what it was like to be in these planes.

80
00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:47,000
Can you give me a sense of it?

81
00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:48,000
Yeah, I think I can.

82
00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:49,000
Yes, why don't you come with me?

83
00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:51,000
Sure.

84
00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:58,000
Bruce walks me through the museum, which contains artifacts from every era of Northwest history.

85
00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:00,000
So we move into the 1950s.

86
00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:02,000
This is the elegant era.

87
00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:05,000
This is the glamorous era of air travel.

88
00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:07,000
And people would dress up to travel.

89
00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:09,000
Oh, they would dress to the nines, yes.

90
00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:12,000
But they'd get on that plane and they were well taken care of.

91
00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:15,000
The seats were comfortable, kind of like a lazy boy in the sky.

92
00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:16,000
Right.

93
00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:19,000
The meal service was what they mostly wrote about.

94
00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:20,000
If people wanted to eat on planes.

95
00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:21,000
Wanted to eat on planes.

96
00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:23,000
You would have a tray put down in front of you.

97
00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:25,000
There would be China.

98
00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:26,000
There would be silverware.

99
00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:28,000
There would be glassware.

100
00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:33,000
I mean, you're eating a meal that you would have at your best restaurant at home.

101
00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:39,000
And here you're eating it at 10,000 feet while you're traveling 200 miles an hour to wherever you wanted to go.

102
00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:43,000
Though flying is originally an exclusive playground for the Uber rich.

103
00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:48,000
By the 1950s, Northwest helps pioneer another innovation in aviation.

104
00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:50,000
Coach class.

105
00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:55,000
More seats, fewer perks, but it opens up the skies to people like you and me.

106
00:06:55,000 --> 00:07:00,000
Here we're on the cusp of mass transportation in the airline industry.

107
00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:04,000
And the fares are economical and everybody's traveling.

108
00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:13,000
As Northwest Airlines grew, they began to open some of the first international routes into Asia, rebranding as Northwest Orient.

109
00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:19,000
To publicize the move, they even rolled out ads featuring legendary comedian Buster Keaton.

110
00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:22,000
Northwest Airlines.

111
00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:25,000
The gong would always sound before he got to it.

112
00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:28,000
So it was Northwest Orient Airlines.

113
00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:29,000
It was the tagline.

114
00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:35,000
Northwest 2501 was the first leg of the new routes into Asia.

115
00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:43,000
A six hour nighttime coach from New York that would fly west before turning north over the Great Lakes to reach Minneapolis.

116
00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:48,000
From there, travelers could go on to Seattle, Anchorage and Tokyo.

117
00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:51,000
And the equipment here was a DC-4.

118
00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:52,000
Right.

119
00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:56,000
It was a four engine transport much like the one the model behind you.

120
00:07:56,000 --> 00:07:57,000
This is it right here, right?

121
00:07:57,000 --> 00:07:58,000
Yes.

122
00:07:58,000 --> 00:07:59,000
So this is the planning question.

123
00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:00,000
Right.

124
00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:01,000
This is a DC-4.

125
00:08:01,000 --> 00:08:05,000
This is the livery that it would have flown in for Flight 2501.

126
00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:11,000
The key to investigating Flight 2501 is understanding what may have happened to the aircraft.

127
00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:14,000
And Bruce here is a bona fide expert.

128
00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:17,000
Now you were a mechanic for Northwest for many years.

129
00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:18,000
Yes, many.

130
00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:19,000
26.

131
00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:20,000
What do you make of the DC-4?

132
00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:28,000
As a plane, it had a very good record that represented a quantum jump, a doubling actually of passengers that you could carry.

133
00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:35,000
If you really want to get an understanding for this plane in Flight 2501, a model is not going to show you.

134
00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:37,000
You need to go see the real thing.

135
00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:38,000
The real thing?

136
00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:41,000
A real airplane.

137
00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:49,000
To discover what may have brought down the plane, I seize a once in a lifetime opportunity at the Washington County Airport outside of Pittsburgh,

138
00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:54,000
where a fully operational DC-4 is waiting on the tarmac.

139
00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:58,000
And now we're living the Spirit of Freedom, our Tim Chope and Dave Shirtloff.

140
00:08:58,000 --> 00:08:59,000
Nice to meet you, sir.

141
00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:00,000
And look at this beauty.

142
00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:01,000
Wow.

143
00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:02,000
Yeah, you did something.

144
00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:03,000
Unbelievable.

145
00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:05,000
And how many of these DC-4s are still flying?

146
00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:08,000
Well, as we know it right now, about six in the world.

147
00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:09,000
Six in the whole world.

148
00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:10,000
Yeah, that's it.

149
00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:11,000
Wow.

150
00:09:11,000 --> 00:09:16,000
It has a unique livery, Spirit of Freedom, and I see Berlin, Berlin Airlift on the tail.

151
00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:18,000
Berlin Airlift was a humanitarian operation?

152
00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:21,000
That is correct, just after World War II.

153
00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:29,000
In 1948, Soviet troops blockaded West Berlin, cutting off all rail and road links into the city.

154
00:09:29,000 --> 00:09:33,000
In response, the United States launched the Berlin Airlift,

155
00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:38,000
and for 18 months an armada of planes, including this one, went into action,

156
00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:43,000
dropping nearly 3 million tons of supplies to the desperate Berliners below.

157
00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:48,000
How long have you been piloting this plane?

158
00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:50,000
I'm proud to say 26 years.

159
00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:51,000
Wow.

160
00:09:51,000 --> 00:09:53,000
I noticed a few oil pools underneath it.

161
00:09:53,000 --> 00:09:54,000
That's not normal?

162
00:09:54,000 --> 00:09:55,000
Yes, very common.

163
00:09:55,000 --> 00:09:57,000
For a radial engine, that's very common.

164
00:09:57,000 --> 00:09:58,000
The same goes like this.

165
00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:03,000
If there's no oil on it, or no oil under it, don't fly it, there's no oil in it.

166
00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:04,000
Got it.

167
00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:05,000
So oil's a good thing.

168
00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:06,000
Yeah.

169
00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:07,000
Well, Josh, shall we go flying?

170
00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:08,000
I think we should.

171
00:10:08,000 --> 00:10:09,000
I'm in your hands, gentlemen.

172
00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:10,000
Let's go.

173
00:10:10,000 --> 00:10:11,000
Wow.

174
00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:17,000
The DC-4 may not be the size of a jumbo jet, but don't call her small.

175
00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:23,000
Her wingspan is 118 feet, and she weighs a hefty 73,000 pounds.

176
00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:27,000
In design, she's nearly identical to Northwest 2501,

177
00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:33,000
offering me the rare opportunity to understand what may have happened aboard that fateful flight.

178
00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:35,000
That is, if I can find my seat.

179
00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:36,000
I'm going here.

180
00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:37,000
Yes, sir.

181
00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:38,000
Okay.

182
00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:39,000
There you go.

183
00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:40,000
This is me.

184
00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:45,000
Okay, David, let's have me forestart.

185
00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:47,000
Okay, password briefing.

186
00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:48,000
It is complete.

187
00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:49,000
Preflight inspection.

188
00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:50,000
Complete.

189
00:10:50,000 --> 00:10:51,000
Doors.

190
00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:56,000
Before anyone turns a key, Tim and Dave have a lengthy series of pre-flight checklists,

191
00:10:56,000 --> 00:10:58,000
and I do mean lengthy.

192
00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:00,000
Gearpins, Peter, cover, tail post.

193
00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:01,000
They're on board.

194
00:11:01,000 --> 00:11:02,000
Round of commitment, personnel.

195
00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:04,000
Posted here on the left.

196
00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:05,000
Fire and guard, fire equipment.

197
00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:06,000
Posted.

198
00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:08,000
Before such a, it is complete.

199
00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:14,000
Okay, start sequence will be 3421, and we're going to run on all the main tanks, 1234.

200
00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:15,000
Roger.

201
00:11:15,000 --> 00:11:18,000
Okay, turning three.

202
00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:23,000
Turning two, three, four.

203
00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:31,000
The first of the four 80-year-old engines springs to life.

204
00:11:31,000 --> 00:11:32,000
Okay, maybe not springs.

205
00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:33,000
Coughs.

206
00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:34,000
Board clear.

207
00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:40,000
Turning two, three, four.

208
00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:44,000
One by one, the other engines are carefully ignited.

209
00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:45,000
Coming in dry.

210
00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:49,000
We have oil pressure.

211
00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:50,000
Shilpa's holding steady.

212
00:11:55,000 --> 00:11:56,000
Oil pressure.

213
00:11:58,000 --> 00:11:59,000
Time for a check is complete.

214
00:11:59,000 --> 00:12:00,000
Hold the lever, eights.

215
00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:01,000
Thank you, sir.

216
00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:02,000
Thank you, ma'am.

217
00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:03,000
Attention to fly.

218
00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:05,000
She's anxious to fly, like that.

219
00:12:05,000 --> 00:12:06,000
That makes two of us.

220
00:12:06,000 --> 00:12:08,000
Okay, Dave, you ready?

221
00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:09,000
I am ready, sir.

222
00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:12,000
Advise, we're taking the runway.

223
00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:20,000
The pilot's coax her forward, and we taxi out onto the runway.

224
00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:23,000
Cross check both sides.

225
00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:25,000
We'll take a check is complete.

226
00:12:25,000 --> 00:12:26,000
Okay, here we go.

227
00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:32,000
The DC-4 roars as it gains speed.

228
00:12:35,000 --> 00:12:36,000
350.

229
00:12:37,000 --> 00:12:40,000
And we're quickly running out of tarmac.

230
00:12:42,000 --> 00:12:51,000
Until finally, the nose lifts up, and we soar into the sky.

231
00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:57,000
Our destination, the truth about Northwest 2501.

232
00:12:57,000 --> 00:12:59,000
Unbelievable.

233
00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:25,000
I'm investigating the case of America's vanished airliner, Northwest Flight 2501, which disappeared over Lake Michigan in 1950 and has never been found.

234
00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:34,000
To learn about the fateful trip, I'm taking an exclusive flight on one of the last operating DC-4s on Earth,

235
00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:38,000
expertly flown by pilots Dave Shirtliff and Tim Cho.

236
00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:40,000
Okay, muscle play of the time.

237
00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:41,000
Power.

238
00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:48,000
First observation, now that I'm up here, this instrumentation pretty much looks like what it looked like in 1950.

239
00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:49,000
Yes, it does.

240
00:13:49,000 --> 00:13:53,000
We don't have a big screen to tell us where exactly we're at all the time.

241
00:13:53,000 --> 00:13:55,000
We still use a navigation chart.

242
00:13:55,000 --> 00:13:56,000
Right.

243
00:13:56,000 --> 00:14:03,000
And Northwest 2501, when these guys are navigating across the country, they're not being tracked in real time, right?

244
00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:04,000
By radar.

245
00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:05,000
No, they're not.

246
00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:11,000
Unlike today where planes are tracked using a network of ground radar stations.

247
00:14:11,000 --> 00:14:19,000
In 1950, civil aircraft would have to manually check in with airport towers as they traveled and receive instructions as they progressed.

248
00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:24,000
Air traffic control was primarily done with blackboards and people who were very good at math.

249
00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:28,000
They would take the pilot's reports and then estimate where everyone would be.

250
00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:32,000
Then do it all over again when the next reports came in.

251
00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:38,000
In the case of 2501, they left LaGuardia to fly west.

252
00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:41,000
Because of flying west, they depart LaGuardia at 7.31.

253
00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:43,000
Beautiful summer evening.

254
00:14:43,000 --> 00:14:44,000
Like this?

255
00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:45,000
Just like this.

256
00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:47,000
55 passengers on a crew of three.

257
00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:48,000
Crew of three.

258
00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:51,000
So there would have been a pilot, co-pilot and a flight attendant, right?

259
00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:52,000
Correct.

260
00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:54,000
The initial light was very comfortable.

261
00:14:54,000 --> 00:14:56,000
You were having no issues at all.

262
00:14:56,000 --> 00:15:02,000
Cruising at 6,000 feet, the first few hours of the flight passed uneventfully.

263
00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:08,000
Being a night flight, many of the passengers no doubt tried to sleep during the trip to Minneapolis.

264
00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:13,000
At 10.20 p.m., Flight 2501 crosses into Ohio.

265
00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:19,000
Two and a half hours after departing LaGuardia, they reported in Air Cleveland,

266
00:15:19,000 --> 00:15:22,000
requesting an altitude change to 4,000.

267
00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:23,000
Descending to 4,000?

268
00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:27,000
Yeah, this is an unpressurized airplane, so you can't go too high.

269
00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:32,000
Today, we cruise at high altitudes in pressurized airplane cabins,

270
00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:35,000
which allow us to travel safely without oxygen masks.

271
00:15:35,000 --> 00:15:40,000
Flight 2501, like all commercial flights of the time, was unpressurized.

272
00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:44,000
So they generally had to fly under 10,000 feet.

273
00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:49,000
There's a reason, though, that we don't want to fly today below 10,000 feet, right?

274
00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:52,000
All of your weather turbulence is down at those levels.

275
00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:53,000
Right, exactly.

276
00:15:53,000 --> 00:15:57,000
So they probably wanted to descend to just get underneath whatever clouds were already there.

277
00:15:57,000 --> 00:15:59,000
Yes, there would be one reason to go down.

278
00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:03,000
30 minutes later, they were requested by Air Traffic Control to descend to 3,500 feet.

279
00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:06,000
Because of the conflicted traffic with another plane that was eastbound,

280
00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:09,000
who had just come out of that same weather.

281
00:16:09,000 --> 00:16:13,000
So at that point, they may have had an idea that they were headed toward a storm system.

282
00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:16,000
Yeah, they had proclamation with the public swathes there.

283
00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:22,000
Though the pilots knew about a storm, they had no idea of how bad it really was.

284
00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:26,000
Northwest 2501 copy, descend 500 feet.

285
00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:34,000
At a weather station at Manitowoc, Wisconsin, meteorologists recorded a 115-millibar drop in air pressure

286
00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:39,000
and wind gusts of 71 miles an hour as the squall rolled through.

287
00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:45,000
Flight 2501, unaware of the storm's intensity, would be flying directly into it.

288
00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:53,000
Continuing west, the pilots check in with the control tower at Battle Creek, Michigan, as scheduled.

289
00:16:53,000 --> 00:16:57,000
Northwest 2501, position Battle Creek.

290
00:16:57,000 --> 00:17:01,000
Estimating Milwaukee, 2337.

291
00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:05,000
What's the last radio call we know of from Flight 2501?

292
00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:12,000
After Battle Creek, the 1213, they requested to continue their descent to 2,500 feet.

293
00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:14,000
First, like they do to turbulence.

294
00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:19,000
Make sure everyone seatbelt is fast.

295
00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:28,000
As they approach Lake Michigan, the wind kicks up and at only 3,500 feet, they feel every gust.

296
00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:36,000
Control, Northwest 2501, request permission to descend to 2,500 feet. Do you copy?

297
00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:38,000
They would deny this.

298
00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:39,000
And why is that?

299
00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:41,000
Due to another airplane in the area.

300
00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:43,000
And at that point, does the pilot say where he is?

301
00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:48,000
Yes, he did. He reported that he was in the vicinity of Benton Harbor, Michigan.

302
00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:54,000
2501 was flying on a kind of highway in the sky called an airway.

303
00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:56,000
This one was red 57.

304
00:17:56,000 --> 00:18:00,000
On that route, they were supposed to cross the lake over the town of Glen.

305
00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:05,000
Yet the pilot claimed he was near Benton Harbor, almost 50 miles to the south.

306
00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:10,000
Assuming his position was correct, why did 2501 go off course?

307
00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:14,000
It's a mystery that has never been fully explained.

308
00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:18,000
And then, what do we hear from them after that? Anything?

309
00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:19,000
Nothing after that.

310
00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:20,000
That's it.

311
00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:21,000
That's it.

312
00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:34,000
At 12.15 a.m. on June 24, 1950, Flight 2501 flies into the heart of a massive storm and disappears.

313
00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:48,000
Her fate isn't a mystery for long though, as grim clues begin to wash ashore.

314
00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:54,000
At the time, it is the worst air disaster in American history.

315
00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:05,000
With only six of these planes still flying in the world, I don't know that I'm going to get another opportunity to ask this question.

316
00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:10,000
You fly a DC-4. What do you think happened to that flight?

317
00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:17,000
Well, I think he went over the lake into a very severe thunderstorm of extreme turbulence.

318
00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:26,000
And he either had structural failure or he just encountered a dowdrift situation that he couldn't overcome and ended up in the lake.

319
00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:30,000
You literally mean winds pushing down on the plane and they're too low to recover out of that?

320
00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:31,000
That is correct.

321
00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:35,000
Well, and it is possible to have turbulence bad enough to break this plane apart.

322
00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:36,000
It is, yes.

323
00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:37,000
Wow.

324
00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:46,000
Sitting in one of the few DC-4s left in the air, this is perhaps the closest I'll ever get to being in the shoes of the passengers aboard 25.

325
00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:56,000
It's a terrifying thought to imagine this plane flying in a storm and even worse to imagine what came next.

326
00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:03,000
But thankfully, on today's flight, Tim and Dave are navigating in calmer weather.

327
00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:08,000
Well, listen, I really appreciate you guys having me up here.

328
00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:11,000
Thank you, Josh. We're delighted that you would be on board with us.

329
00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:13,000
Okay, let's get ourselves back to the airport here.

330
00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:18,000
Tim brings the plane around and begins the landing procedure.

331
00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:22,000
It's every bit as detailed as the one he used for takeoff.

332
00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:26,000
Okay, landing gear down.

333
00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:28,000
What are you doing down?

334
00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:32,000
Landing check.

335
00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:34,000
Handles down, pursuers up, figuring lights.

336
00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:35,000
Flaps.

337
00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:36,000
Flaps 30.

338
00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:37,000
Flaps 30.

339
00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:38,000
100.

340
00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:39,000
Down at 700.

341
00:20:40,000 --> 00:20:41,000
98.

342
00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:42,000
Down at 70.

343
00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:44,000
700.

344
00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:46,000
95.

345
00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:47,000
Handle, handle.

346
00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:48,000
Handle.

347
00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:49,000
Handle at idle.

348
00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:51,000
85.

349
00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:52,000
Down at 700.

350
00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:53,000
80.

351
00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:01,000
We got hydraulics.

352
00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:04,000
5,000 better.

353
00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:05,000
Okay, keep the stick back.

354
00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:07,000
Roger, good stick.

355
00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:11,000
Tim, can I open my eyes? Are we alive?

356
00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:13,000
Yes.

357
00:21:14,000 --> 00:21:15,000
Oh, what a thrill.

358
00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:18,000
When the plane safely touches down,

359
00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:22,000
I realize how much I take modern air safety for granted.

360
00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:24,000
In the 1950s on a DC-4,

361
00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:28,000
you never had the luxury of forgetting the dangers of flying.

362
00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:30,000
I need a drink. Come on.

363
00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:35,000
I've flown in Northwest 2501's doppelganger.

364
00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:39,000
Now, it's time to go find the original.

365
00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:43,000
Coming up.

366
00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:47,000
That's brand new information.

367
00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:48,000
This changes everything.

368
00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:49,000
So put another way,

369
00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:52,000
there's probably an airplane wreck somewhere in there.

370
00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:53,000
That's where my money would be.

371
00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:54,000
That looks like debris.

372
00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:55,000
This could be it.

373
00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:57,000
Josh, I think I've done something.

374
00:21:57,000 --> 00:21:58,000
You got debris.

375
00:21:58,000 --> 00:21:59,000
You got debris.

376
00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:14,000
On June 24th, 1950, Northwest flight 2501

377
00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:18,000
vanished over Lake Michigan on her way from New York to Minneapolis

378
00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:20,000
and has never been found.

379
00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:24,000
To learn about the details of her fateful flight,

380
00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:28,000
I took a ride in one of the few DC-4's still in the air.

381
00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:31,000
We now know that weather almost certainly took down the plane,

382
00:22:31,000 --> 00:22:34,000
but we're left with one massive mystery,

383
00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:36,000
the location of the wreck.

384
00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:40,000
I grabbed some wheels

385
00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:43,000
and put Pennsylvania in the rear view mirror.

386
00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:49,000
I'm headed down into Michigan

387
00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:53,000
to meet with author, researcher, and friend Valerie Van Heest.

388
00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:55,000
I had a chance to work with Valerie recently

389
00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:59,000
as we searched for a famous shipwreck known as the Griffin.

390
00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:02,000
Working alongside Great Lakes explorer Chris Cole,

391
00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:06,000
Valerie and I dove Lake Huron off the coast of Canada

392
00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:09,000
for the explorer LaSalle's lost ship.

393
00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:22,000
We discovered two previously uncharted wrecks.

394
00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:25,000
The steam barge Bruno and the schooner Louisa.

395
00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:27,000
New discovery, Josh.

396
00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:28,000
Really cool.

397
00:23:28,000 --> 00:23:29,000
Awesome.

398
00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:33,000
In the process, Valerie proved to be one of the most tenacious investigators

399
00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:35,000
I've ever worked with.

400
00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:38,000
She's one of the most knowledgeable people around when it comes to wrecks

401
00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:42,000
in the Great Lakes, and she's determined to find the final resting place

402
00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:45,000
of Northwest 2501.

403
00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:50,000
It's a six-hour drive around one Great Lake to the shores of another.

404
00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:53,000
But when I get to South Haven, Michigan,

405
00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:56,000
it feels more like I've driven back in time.

406
00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:00,000
Oh, come on.

407
00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:01,000
How adorable is this?

408
00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:03,000
Somebody cue the small town music.

409
00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:08,000
I go sightseeing.

410
00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:10,000
It takes 45 seconds.

411
00:24:11,000 --> 00:24:13,000
Once I've seen everything in town, twice,

412
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:17,000
I go to find Valerie who's asked to meet me on the banks of Lake Michigan.

413
00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:21,000
How are you?

414
00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:22,000
Great to see you again.

415
00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:23,000
Great to see you too. How have you been?

416
00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:24,000
Great to see you too. How have you been?

417
00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:25,000
Great to see you too. How have you been?

418
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:26,000
When did you first hear about this story?

419
00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:29,000
You know, I first heard about it in 2003.

420
00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:33,000
We have been looking for shipwrecks, and we knew about this.

421
00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:38,000
We did some research, and we thought we might find it in the course of looking for shipwrecks.

422
00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:43,000
Valerie, her husband Jack, and their partner Craig Rich

423
00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:48,000
lead a team of investigators and divers at the Michigan Shipwreck Research Association.

424
00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:54,000
Together, they've discovered 20 previously undocumented wrecks at the bottom of the lake.

425
00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:57,000
But the more Valerie read about the missing plane,

426
00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:00,000
the more she became fixated on finding it.

427
00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:04,000
58 people went missing in modern history,

428
00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:08,000
and families of these victims have never gotten closer.

429
00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:12,000
Right. Imagine losing one parent, both parents maybe in some cases.

430
00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:13,000
Exactly.

431
00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:15,000
And never knowing what happened to them.

432
00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:16,000
Right.

433
00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:20,000
I really captured my interest in trying to solve this mystery.

434
00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:27,000
This 15-year passion project quickly became a subject of obsession.

435
00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:31,000
She conducted over 100 interviews with family members of the victims,

436
00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:35,000
eyewitnesses on the ground, and former Northwest officials.

437
00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:39,000
Then, poured over thousands of documents to write Fatal Crossing,

438
00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:42,000
the definitive record of the lost Northwest flight.

439
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:45,000
Let's talk about what happens immediately after the plane disappears.

440
00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:50,000
At 5.30 a.m., Northwest Airlines realized the plane would have run out of fuel.

441
00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:51,000
Right.

442
00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:54,000
And they alerted the authorities to begin a search over by Milwaukee,

443
00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:55,000
across the lake from here.

444
00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:56,000
Far from here?

445
00:25:56,000 --> 00:25:59,000
Yes, 60 to 80 miles from here.

446
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:03,000
The search of Lake Michigan near Milwaukee proves fruitless.

447
00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:06,000
But back on the eastern side, near South Haven,

448
00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:10,000
a fisherman pulls up a macabre catch, a dress shirt,

449
00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:13,000
belonging to a passenger on the plane.

450
00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:16,000
Soon, his nets are bringing up loads of debris.

451
00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:22,000
After notifying the Coast Guard, search efforts are quickly relocated to South Haven.

452
00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:25,000
And what about on shore? Does anything wash up here?

453
00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:27,000
There was all manner of debris that washed ashore.

454
00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:31,000
These were suitcases, personal effects.

455
00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:34,000
There were a foam from the seat cushions.

456
00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:38,000
There was a little baby doll that a passenger child must have carried.

457
00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:41,000
And littered among all that were human remains.

458
00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:43,000
And these were not identifiable.

459
00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:45,000
This was so gruesome.

460
00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:48,000
The mayor of South Haven had to close the beaches.

461
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:52,000
The plane crash became a national fascination, dominating headlines

462
00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:55,000
as the search for victims got underway.

463
00:26:55,000 --> 00:27:00,000
Rescue craft in Plains searched the waters of Lake Michigan near South Haven, Michigan,

464
00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:04,000
for clues to the worst airline disaster in U.S. history.

465
00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:08,000
The cause of the catastrophe unknown.

466
00:27:11,000 --> 00:27:16,000
Unfortunately, Northwest 2501 was pushed off the front pages the next day

467
00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:20,000
by another story, the beginning of the Korean War.

468
00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:22,000
And it wasn't just the newspapers.

469
00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:27,000
The whole country reverted to war footing, and the crash was the first casualty.

470
00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:31,000
Families of victims were never notified of their relatives' fate.

471
00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:35,000
There were no burial ceremonies for the few remains that were recovered.

472
00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:39,000
And far, far too quickly, 2501 was forgotten.

473
00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:42,000
It's something that Valerie is desperate to rectify.

474
00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:47,000
So, okay, how do you go about figuring out where the plane is?

475
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:49,000
Well, come with me and I'll show you.

476
00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:51,000
Okay, come on.

477
00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:57,000
Valerie brings me down the road to a marine warehouse turned headquarters.

478
00:27:57,000 --> 00:28:03,000
South Haven is where Valerie and her team at the MSRA coordinated the efforts to find wrecks,

479
00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:07,000
like the SS Michigan, missing since 1885.

480
00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:13,000
And the Hennepin, gone since 1927, both discovered by her team.

481
00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:18,000
Manning the fore here is Valerie's husband and partner, Jack Van Heest.

482
00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:19,000
Jack, great to meet you.

483
00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:20,000
How you doing, Josh?

484
00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:22,000
Pleasure. You guys have a regular war room going here.

485
00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:26,000
Well, for so many years, South Haven has been our base of operation.

486
00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:28,000
Yeah, so let's talk about this operation.

487
00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:30,000
This chart shows the flight, yeah?

488
00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:31,000
Yes.

489
00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:33,000
Okay, can I borrow your model here?

490
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:34,000
Yeah, of course.

491
00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:35,000
So this is Flight 2501.

492
00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:40,000
So it moves out over the lake, crashes somewhere, never to be seen again.

493
00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:41,000
Exactly.

494
00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:43,000
Okay, so that's a lot of water.

495
00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:48,000
So the first thing we did is get our hands on the Civil Aeronautics Board reports, the CAB report.

496
00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:51,000
Is that a huge investigative document?

497
00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:52,000
No, it's not.

498
00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:54,000
It's only four pages long.

499
00:28:54,000 --> 00:28:55,000
Four pages?

500
00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:56,000
Four pages.

501
00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:57,000
That's all there is.

502
00:28:57,000 --> 00:28:58,000
Six thousand words.

503
00:28:58,000 --> 00:28:59,000
Right.

504
00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:01,000
Okay, and do they have any analysis on where the plane crashed?

505
00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:02,000
It does at the top.

506
00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:04,000
It says location.

507
00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:09,000
So yeah, crashing to Lake Michigan approximately 18 miles north northwest of Benton Harbor.

508
00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:12,000
Okay, so dumb question.

509
00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:13,000
Yeah.

510
00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:14,000
Wouldn't this be the first place to look?

511
00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:15,000
Well, it was.

512
00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:16,000
Did you go there?

513
00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:18,000
We looked and there was nothing.

514
00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:19,000
Nothing there?

515
00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:20,000
No.

516
00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:21,000
It's not a scrap?

517
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:22,000
Nothing.

518
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:23,000
Okay, so where do you go from here?

519
00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:24,000
So we start digging deeper.

520
00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:25,000
We do some research.

521
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:30,000
The local media picks that up, does a story, and then lo and behold, we get a phone call.

522
00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:34,000
From Clive Cussler, author and explorer.

523
00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:40,000
Clive Cussler is the author of more than 80 adventure books, but on the side, he's also

524
00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:45,000
become the patron saint of wreck hunters, helping to locate more than 60 sunken ships around

525
00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:46,000
the world.

526
00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:52,000
He was so intrigued by this case that he spent several seasons sponsoring Valerie's team.

527
00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:57,000
So he offers to send a search crew to South Haven to work with us to find this wreckage.

528
00:29:57,000 --> 00:29:58,000
We had this huge body of water.

529
00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:02,000
We knew we had to narrow down, and we knew that the Navy and the Coast Guard ships had

530
00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:05,000
been out there searching and finding debris and remains.

531
00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:09,000
So we found the Coast Guard and Navy logbooks in the National Archives.

532
00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:11,000
The actual logbooks from their search?

533
00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:12,000
Yeah, the actual logbooks.

534
00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:14,000
We got them right here.

535
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:19,000
So what's important about these documents is they give us coordinates of where the Coast

536
00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:23,000
Guard was picking up debris every four hours during a week-long search.

537
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:25,000
And exactly what they were doing.

538
00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:26,000
That's huge.

539
00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:27,000
Oh, yeah.

540
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:32,000
The Coast Guard meticulously mapped every piece of debris that they recovered and logged

541
00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:35,000
it with a precise latitude and longitude.

542
00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:41,000
In total, they collected more than 7,000 pounds from the plane, only 10% of its weight.

543
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:46,000
The logbooks provided Val and Jack with a real-time look at the rescue effort and gave

544
00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:49,000
them new places to look for the aircraft.

545
00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:53,000
So roughly where are they finding debris on here?

546
00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:55,000
They're finding debris right in this area here.

547
00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:58,000
Any clues in the debris itself?

548
00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:01,000
Well, we've got some of it if you'd like to take a look.

549
00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:04,000
You actually have items that were on board the plane?

550
00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:05,000
We do.

551
00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:12,000
Valerie retrieves a box containing some of the debris recovered in 1950, which she and

552
00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:17,000
her colleagues have collected as part of their exhaustive effort at preservation.

553
00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:20,000
The contents of this box are fairly emotional.

554
00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:23,000
These are actual things pulled from the water.

555
00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:30,000
It's my job to fight artifacts of the past, but what Valerie shows me here is absolutely

556
00:31:30,000 --> 00:31:31,000
overwhelming.

557
00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:33,000
What am I word?

558
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:51,000
In the overnight hours of June 24, 1950, a DC-4 passenger plane carrying 58 people disappeared

559
00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:54,000
while flying through a storm over Lake Michigan.

560
00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:57,000
The crash site has never been found.

561
00:31:57,000 --> 00:32:03,000
Almost 70 years later, Valerie and Jack Van Heest believe they have the key to locating

562
00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:04,000
the wreckage.

563
00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:09,000
But right now, Valerie is about to show me the reason she spent thousands of hours on

564
00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:10,000
this search.

565
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:13,000
The contents of this box are fairly emotional.

566
00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:17,000
These are the personal effects of a passenger Merle Barton.

567
00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:24,000
34-year-old Merle Barton owned a beauty salon in Minnesota.

568
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:29,000
When 2501 went into Lake Michigan, he left behind a wife and a two-year-old daughter.

569
00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:34,000
We've got Merle Barton's checkbook register found floating in the water.

570
00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:36,000
Oh, my word.

571
00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:41,000
This is his actual checkbook, Austin State Bank of Austin, Minnesota.

572
00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:44,000
This is something that might have actually been on his person.

573
00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:45,000
Exactly.

574
00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:46,000
May I?

575
00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:47,000
Yes.

576
00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:54,000
You will find in here the registry for the ticket he purchased on this flight.

577
00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:56,000
Come on.

578
00:32:56,000 --> 00:33:01,000
The last entry, Northwest Airlines, $94.30.

579
00:33:01,000 --> 00:33:02,000
It looks like.

580
00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:03,000
That's the plane ticket.

581
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:05,000
Cost of a one-way ticket.

582
00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:13,000
That's kind of hard to look at even.

583
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:14,000
It is.

584
00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:16,000
Pull.

585
00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:21,000
That's tough.

586
00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:22,000
Yeah.

587
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:30,000
Now, what's harder to see is Merle Barton's jacket.

588
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:37,000
And this was found floating on the lake and returned to his family.

589
00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:40,000
So this is his actual suit jacket that he's wearing on the flight.

590
00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:41,000
Yeah.

591
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:42,000
Wow.

592
00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:48,000
And so now we really understand that this is a human tragedy.

593
00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:54,000
That's tough.

594
00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:56,000
It's very hard.

595
00:33:56,000 --> 00:34:02,000
Just, it just, when you see something so, when you just see something like this,

596
00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:04,000
I mean, it's the clothes off a man's back.

597
00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:05,000
It is.

598
00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:06,000
I mean, it's.

599
00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:17,000
And it's for his daughter and all the other children of victims that we want to find the final answer of what happened to this plane.

600
00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:19,000
The fate of these artifacts will be what?

601
00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:22,000
These are slated for a museum exhibit.

602
00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:23,000
That's good.

603
00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:24,000
That's good.

604
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:25,000
Okay.

605
00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:28,000
So let's pack this stuff away.

606
00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:36,000
Valerie returns the personal effects to storage, leaving me with a new sense of how important this case truly is.

607
00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:39,000
But the debris has more than just sentimental value.

608
00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:42,000
It's helped Valerie look for 2501.

609
00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:44,000
The debris is, is floating up here.

610
00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:52,000
Now, some people might say, well, if there's debris on the surface, this must be where the plane is right here.

611
00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:53,000
Did you go there?

612
00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:54,000
We did.

613
00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:55,000
And?

614
00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:56,000
We found nothing.

615
00:34:56,000 --> 00:34:59,000
So that means maybe the debris has drifted into this position.

616
00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:00,000
Yeah.

617
00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:05,000
And so we hooked up with scientist David Schwab, who studies lake currents in Lake Michigan.

618
00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:12,000
In 2004, Schwab and the National Weather Service took the positions of where each piece of debris was recovered,

619
00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:16,000
then collected the weather data from the night of the crash.

620
00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:24,000
With all the available information, they projected the maximum distance the wreckage would have been able to drift before being picked up by the Coast Guard.

621
00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:28,000
This provided Valerie and Jack with a defined search zone.

622
00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:33,000
And your drift modeling guide determined that this stuff could have drifted how far before the Coast Guard got to it.

623
00:35:33,000 --> 00:35:42,000
He didn't feel based on weather records at the time that it couldn't have drifted any farther than 12.5 miles in any direction.

624
00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:53,000
Extending from the cluster of debris, the 12.5 mile radius gave Val and Jack a 25 mile diameter search zone,

625
00:35:53,000 --> 00:35:57,000
or about 500 square miles of Lake Michigan.

626
00:35:57,000 --> 00:36:02,000
For comparison, that's slightly bigger than the entire city of Los Angeles.

627
00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:06,000
So you've narrowed Lake Michigan down, but it's not exactly a slam dunk.

628
00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:07,000
Right.

629
00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:08,000
That's a lot of water.

630
00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:09,000
Yeah.

631
00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:10,000
Right?

632
00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:11,000
So now what?

633
00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:12,000
The search for us expanded.

634
00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:13,000
We worked outward.

635
00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:19,000
We tried to cover this entire circle, and we found shipwrecks, but not the airplane.

636
00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:28,000
Over 14 long years, Valerie's team has systematically divided the search zone into sectors for investigation.

637
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:37,000
Year after year, they've been conducting high resolution sonar scans of the lake bed and diving to explore any anomalies that are found.

638
00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:47,000
But so far, they haven't found any sign of the wreck, yet they continue this remarkable labor of love in order to find the plane for the families.

639
00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:48,000
That's dedication.

640
00:36:48,000 --> 00:36:49,000
Yeah.

641
00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:50,000
Or madness.

642
00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:51,000
Or madness, you said it, not me.

643
00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:56,000
In the time that you've been searching, generally speaking, what have you covered?

644
00:36:56,000 --> 00:37:01,000
Well, the initial 500 square mile circle, we've done almost all of that.

645
00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:02,000
Almost all of it.

646
00:37:02,000 --> 00:37:10,000
And we've made sure that we overlap our coverage so that we're not leaving gaps, but there are some areas we have yet to cover.

647
00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:15,000
Though the circle is nearly searched, what's left is still a lot of water.

648
00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:22,000
Valerie's team has further narrowed down the remaining area, though, by tracking down information from some long hidden sources.

649
00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:26,000
And we just made a really amazing discovery just recently.

650
00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:27,000
Okay.

651
00:37:27,000 --> 00:37:31,000
A newspaper account of an eyewitness who saw the plane that night.

652
00:37:31,000 --> 00:37:32,000
Okay.

653
00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:34,000
And the article's from where?

654
00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:39,000
The article is from the South Haven Daily Tribune.

655
00:37:39,000 --> 00:37:40,000
How did this make its way to you?

656
00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:49,000
Well, actually, one of the little boys who saw the plane that night kept this all these years and just recently sent it to us.

657
00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:50,000
Out of the blue.

658
00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:51,000
Out of the blue.

659
00:37:51,000 --> 00:38:03,000
The article details the eyewitness account of a retired naval commander in South Haven named R.P. Helm, who described a plane flying over his home moments before seeing a flash out on the lake.

660
00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:05,000
Presumably, the plane crashing.

661
00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:10,000
But here's the amazing part that Valerie didn't know until this article was found.

662
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:13,000
The plane was flying east.

663
00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:15,000
That's brand new information.

664
00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:22,000
So the idea is he came out on the airway and then actually turned around and started to come back, right?

665
00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:23,000
Right.

666
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:29,000
And what this tells us is we've got a search within a small radius of Commander Helm's home.

667
00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:32,000
So this changes everything?

668
00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:33,000
Changes everything.

669
00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:38,000
Perhaps the pilot saw and encountered the storm and turned around.

670
00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:40,000
This is potentially a huge break in this case.

671
00:38:40,000 --> 00:38:45,000
The plane is possibly much closer to shore than we previously believed.

672
00:38:45,000 --> 00:38:55,000
Putting together the flight plan, the information from the transcripts, the eyewitness accounts and this newspaper, you've created a brand new place to look for this plane.

673
00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:59,000
Well, this is the most promising area based on all of the evidence.

674
00:38:59,000 --> 00:39:01,000
This is where we have to search.

675
00:39:01,000 --> 00:39:03,000
So 20 square miles.

676
00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:04,000
Yes.

677
00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:06,000
Got plans tomorrow?

678
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:07,000
I do now.

679
00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:13,000
Early the next morning, and I do mean early.

680
00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:18,000
I meet Valerie and Jack at the South Haven Marina to go fishing for a plane.

681
00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:22,000
You know, when I signed up for this, I did not realize we'd be leaving at four in the morning.

682
00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:24,000
Well, the weather is good now.

683
00:39:29,000 --> 00:39:35,000
Jack starts up the boat and we motor out to the new spot where the MSRA hasn't yet searched.

684
00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:42,000
This is the place where Helm says he saw Flight 2501 turn around and head back toward shore.

685
00:39:48,000 --> 00:39:50,000
This is it. This is the place.

686
00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:52,000
Okay, we're here.

687
00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:55,000
We need to get the sonar in the water and find this thing.

688
00:39:55,000 --> 00:39:57,000
Let's do it.

689
00:39:57,000 --> 00:40:04,000
The MSRA's boat has been turned into a high-tech research vessel equipped with a state-of-the-art sonar array.

690
00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:09,000
The towfish will be pulled with a custom-built winch system across our new search zone,

691
00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:14,000
sending real-time data about the lake bed to the computer on board.

692
00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:19,000
What we have is we've got a bunch of lanes mapped out on here, paths that we want to take.

693
00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:25,000
So we want to do what we call mowing the lawn where we go down one path, turn, come back on another path,

694
00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:28,000
and cover that way we're covering the whole area.

695
00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:34,000
Sonar uses high-frequency radio waves to generate an image of the lake bed.

696
00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:40,000
The array pings the bottom and a receiver takes the reflection, mapping it in perfect detail.

697
00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:45,000
I mean, right now it looks like the surface of the moon down there. It just looks featureless.

698
00:40:45,000 --> 00:40:50,000
We've looked at a lot of lake bottom and there's a lot of featureless sand out there.

699
00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:52,000
Looks like a desert down there right now.

700
00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:58,000
This new unexplored area is at the southern end of Valerie's original search zone.

701
00:40:58,000 --> 00:41:06,000
While Jack, captains, she and I take turns watching a seemingly endless expanse of lake bottom scroll across the screen.

702
00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:12,000
Let's talk about what we're looking for here. We're not looking for the perfect outline of a plane.

703
00:41:12,000 --> 00:41:20,000
No, we're looking for debris field. We know that this thing broke up either on impact or with an explosion in the air.

704
00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:26,000
The engines we expect to be intact and then the structural spars in each wing, those are about 40 feet long.

705
00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:30,000
We should see those. Maybe we'll see a tail section.

706
00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:44,000
For the next three, four, five hours, we continue mowing the lawn until finally.

707
00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:49,000
Josh, there's something over here, Jack.

708
00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:50,000
What do you got?

709
00:41:50,000 --> 00:41:52,000
Oh, something down there. That's a shadow. Look at that.

710
00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:55,000
Yeah, wow. What is that?

711
00:41:57,000 --> 00:42:02,000
There's some height to it. There's some mass. It's about 15 feet wide.

712
00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:03,000
That could be the plan.

713
00:42:03,000 --> 00:42:04,000
Yeah.

714
00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:09,000
What we've got is something bigger than a tractor trailer lying in 130 feet of water.

715
00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:11,000
Let's get down there. Come on. Okay. I'm going to pull the sonar. Yes.

716
00:42:11,000 --> 00:42:13,000
All right. Yeah, let's pull the sonar.

717
00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:22,000
We drop an anchor line and prepare for the frigid waters of Lake Michigan.

718
00:42:22,000 --> 00:42:27,000
Once we're ready to dive, we step off and take the plunge.

719
00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:35,000
Holy s***, it's freezing.

720
00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:40,000
Okay, here we go. We are headed down the stern line.

721
00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:45,000
Inch by inch, we pull ourselves down to the target.

722
00:42:50,000 --> 00:42:54,000
We are passing 50 feet and headed down.

723
00:42:57,000 --> 00:43:02,000
Visibility is decreasing. Stay close to the line.

724
00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:06,000
Watch it out. I'm not going far.

725
00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:11,000
At its deepest point, Lake Michigan is almost a thousand feet straight down,

726
00:43:11,000 --> 00:43:13,000
enough to swallow the Eiffel Tower.

727
00:43:13,000 --> 00:43:17,000
Even here near the shore, it drops to well over 100 feet,

728
00:43:17,000 --> 00:43:21,000
meaning we'll be operating near the edge of our limits for scuba gear.

729
00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:26,000
Okay, we're passing 90 feet. Keep your eyes peeled.

730
00:43:29,000 --> 00:43:34,000
Arm is coming into view. I can see nothing dark down there.

731
00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:38,000
I don't know what that is.

732
00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:42,000
What is that?

733
00:43:55,000 --> 00:44:02,000
On June 24th, 1950, Northwest Flight 2501 flew into a storm over Lake Michigan

734
00:44:02,000 --> 00:44:05,000
and vanished with 58 people aboard.

735
00:44:05,000 --> 00:44:10,000
At the time, it was the largest aviation disaster in U.S. history,

736
00:44:10,000 --> 00:44:14,000
and it remains the only large U.S. airliner to never be found.

737
00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:20,000
A forgotten eyewitness report led investigator Valerie Van Heest and me

738
00:44:20,000 --> 00:44:26,000
to a new search area where Sonar revealed something large enough to be wreckage from the plane.

739
00:44:26,000 --> 00:44:28,000
That could be the plane.

740
00:44:28,000 --> 00:44:32,000
Now, we're descending into the depths of the lake to see what's down there.

741
00:44:35,000 --> 00:44:40,000
Arm is coming into view. I can see nothing dark down there.

742
00:44:43,000 --> 00:44:45,000
I don't know what that is.

743
00:44:48,000 --> 00:44:50,000
Wait, what is that?

744
00:44:52,000 --> 00:44:57,000
Resting on the lake bottom is what appears to be a huge metal framework.

745
00:44:57,000 --> 00:45:00,000
But the question is, from what?

746
00:45:02,000 --> 00:45:04,000
Looks more like a hit-brick.

747
00:45:06,000 --> 00:45:09,000
Yeah, it doesn't look like this is a plane.

748
00:45:10,000 --> 00:45:17,000
That is a hole. Definitely a ship. Looks like a barge.

749
00:45:17,000 --> 00:45:20,000
But we're down here a long time, that's for sure.

750
00:45:21,000 --> 00:45:25,000
Up close, the wreck reveals decades of encrustation.

751
00:45:25,000 --> 00:45:27,000
Any clueless to what happened to her?

752
00:45:27,000 --> 00:45:34,000
No idea. We're going to hand her luck to Gordon and use the research.

753
00:45:34,000 --> 00:45:36,000
Incredible. Another mystery.

754
00:45:37,000 --> 00:45:40,000
Okay, now I'm turning into a popsicle. Let's have a look.

755
00:45:50,000 --> 00:45:54,000
Okay, we got a wreck, but not a plane.

756
00:45:54,000 --> 00:45:56,000
It's not what we were looking for.

757
00:45:56,000 --> 00:45:58,000
No, a barge of some kind.

758
00:45:58,000 --> 00:46:00,000
It sure looks like it.

759
00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:04,000
Yeah, so disappointing, but another wreck with its own story to tell.

760
00:46:04,000 --> 00:46:08,000
We're going to have to work to identify it and tell it's story.

761
00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:11,000
And we've got to keep looking for the plane.

762
00:46:11,000 --> 00:46:13,000
How many wrecks that make for you?

763
00:46:13,000 --> 00:46:15,000
21.

764
00:46:15,000 --> 00:46:19,000
Not that one you're looking for, but 21 is still a pretty good number.

765
00:46:19,000 --> 00:46:21,000
Great job, though.

766
00:46:21,000 --> 00:46:24,000
A wreck is a wreck. Okay, let's get back on the boat.

767
00:46:25,000 --> 00:46:29,000
We climb back aboard for the trip home to South Haven.

768
00:46:29,000 --> 00:46:34,000
We've been able to fill in more of the search zone and found an incredible new wreck,

769
00:46:34,000 --> 00:46:36,000
but the plane is still out there.

770
00:46:36,000 --> 00:46:40,000
Valerie and Jack, though, have some tricks left up their sleeve.

771
00:46:40,000 --> 00:46:44,000
Once we make it to dry land, they send me down to Grand Rapids

772
00:46:44,000 --> 00:46:48,000
for a meeting that might help us get closer to the missing aircraft.

773
00:46:48,000 --> 00:46:52,000
But first, Valerie wants me to understand the urgency of her mission

774
00:46:52,000 --> 00:46:55,000
by stopping in for lunch at a South Haven diner.

775
00:46:55,000 --> 00:46:56,000
Hi, nice to meet you.

776
00:46:56,000 --> 00:47:02,000
With me is Ken Scogh IV, Ken Scogh Jr. and Ken Scogh III.

777
00:47:02,000 --> 00:47:09,000
Three generations, all named after one of Flight 2501's victims, Ken Scogh Sr.

778
00:47:09,000 --> 00:47:15,000
This is a story that a lot of people, especially younger people, may have never heard of.

779
00:47:15,000 --> 00:47:17,000
Tell me a little bit about that night.

780
00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:20,000
I was 18 years old. He was 51.

781
00:47:20,000 --> 00:47:25,000
51. And who was at the airport to meet him? Was it you?

782
00:47:25,000 --> 00:47:29,000
I had Margaret, his second wife, and he was flying in.

783
00:47:29,000 --> 00:47:34,000
He took a night plane instead of a day plane. I guess he wanted to do some more work.

784
00:47:34,000 --> 00:47:38,000
How long was it before you had a sense that maybe something was wrong?

785
00:47:38,000 --> 00:47:43,000
They knew at the time the plane was missing, but they didn't convey that information to me.

786
00:47:43,000 --> 00:47:49,000
They didn't know exactly where it was, but they must have had a pretty good idea that something was wrong.

787
00:47:50,000 --> 00:47:55,000
And they never did inform us. I was called the next day by a minister at the church,

788
00:47:55,000 --> 00:47:59,000
and the minister said, your dad's plane is missing.

789
00:47:59,000 --> 00:48:04,000
And as the search unfolded, what was that experience like?

790
00:48:04,000 --> 00:48:09,000
Well, you know, I knew my father was dead very soon.

791
00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:14,000
A briefcase emerged, and my father's briefcase. It was found early.

792
00:48:14,000 --> 00:48:15,000
Yeah.

793
00:48:15,000 --> 00:48:20,000
Just 18 when the plane crashed, Ken Jr. has kept his father's memory alive,

794
00:48:20,000 --> 00:48:25,000
sharing treasured pictures and stories with his children and grandchildren.

795
00:48:25,000 --> 00:48:28,000
And this letter? This is a letter from Eisenhower.

796
00:48:28,000 --> 00:48:32,000
I learned that your father had been a passenger on the plane lost over Lake Michigan.

797
00:48:32,000 --> 00:48:37,000
My sincerest sympathy, sincerely, to write to you, Eisenhower.

798
00:48:37,000 --> 00:48:39,000
So that's really, really something that he sent that.

799
00:48:39,000 --> 00:48:41,000
Yes, I admired him.

800
00:48:41,000 --> 00:48:46,000
And what about you, Ken, when you were a kid growing up, was this story of the flight

801
00:48:46,000 --> 00:48:50,000
kind of part of the narrative of your family or something that wasn't talked about?

802
00:48:50,000 --> 00:48:55,000
Well, we didn't talk about it a whole lot. I just knew as a kid that I was missing a set of grandparents.

803
00:48:55,000 --> 00:49:00,000
Over time, I became more curious and wanted to know what had happened.

804
00:49:00,000 --> 00:49:03,000
What would it mean to you if the plane was found?

805
00:49:03,000 --> 00:49:10,000
It would be an important point for me to know the spot or something I could say, that's where he's buried.

806
00:49:10,000 --> 00:49:14,000
There was no grave, there was no nothing. He just, he died, he was gone somewhere in Lake Michigan.

807
00:49:14,000 --> 00:49:18,000
For me, that would be nice to know where it happened.

808
00:49:18,000 --> 00:49:26,000
I think it would mean a lot to tell their stories, and I think finding the wreckage of the plane would make those stories so much more potent.

809
00:49:26,000 --> 00:49:32,000
You know, you think about this accident and all of the people whose lives were cut short,

810
00:49:32,000 --> 00:49:37,000
the world is a very different place because of that airplane crash.

811
00:49:37,000 --> 00:49:42,000
Well, listen, I just want to say thanks for taking the time to chat with me. I really appreciate it.

812
00:49:42,000 --> 00:49:44,000
It was really an honor to hear about your father.

813
00:49:44,000 --> 00:49:45,000
Thank you.

814
00:49:45,000 --> 00:49:50,000
The Scoges are just one of the many families waiting for a phone call from Valerie,

815
00:49:50,000 --> 00:49:54,000
and the news that Northwest 2501 has finally been found.

816
00:49:54,000 --> 00:50:00,000
Now, we may be closer to that day with new information that might just change the search.

817
00:50:01,000 --> 00:50:08,000
I'm headed to Grand Rapids, Michigan to meet with the oceanographer who worked with Valerie early on to help establish her initial search area.

818
00:50:08,000 --> 00:50:14,000
Now, there's word that he's been able to use new technology to make a major break in the case.

819
00:50:28,000 --> 00:50:29,000
Dave? Hey.

820
00:50:29,000 --> 00:50:30,000
Dave's here.

821
00:50:30,000 --> 00:50:31,000
Nice to meet you. How are you?

822
00:50:31,000 --> 00:50:32,000
Hi, Dan.

823
00:50:32,000 --> 00:50:34,000
Dan, pleasure. This is an impressive setup.

824
00:50:34,000 --> 00:50:35,000
Thank you.

825
00:50:35,000 --> 00:50:36,000
You ever do Monday Night Football in here?

826
00:50:40,000 --> 00:50:42,000
No, we're all business.

827
00:50:42,000 --> 00:50:45,000
All business? Okay, that's good. You're the weather service. You're supposed to be all business.

828
00:50:45,000 --> 00:50:48,000
So, okay, and you focus on another aspect of weather, right?

829
00:50:48,000 --> 00:50:51,000
My specialty is oceanography of the Great Lakes.

830
00:50:51,000 --> 00:50:53,000
So we've got above the water and in the water.

831
00:50:53,000 --> 00:50:54,000
Exactly.

832
00:50:54,000 --> 00:50:58,000
And weather really is at the heart of this story that we're tackling.

833
00:50:58,000 --> 00:51:02,000
Let's go back in time to 1950. Facilities like this are not here.

834
00:51:02,000 --> 00:51:03,000
Don't exist yet.

835
00:51:03,000 --> 00:51:06,000
Right. Do we have records from that time?

836
00:51:06,000 --> 00:51:07,000
Yes, we do.

837
00:51:07,000 --> 00:51:12,000
Weather observers at the airports that existed at that time, and they're taking observations on an hourly basis.

838
00:51:12,000 --> 00:51:14,000
And when we say collecting data, what are they doing?

839
00:51:14,000 --> 00:51:21,000
So they're collecting the recording, the sky condition, visibility, temperature, dew point, humidity, wind direction and speed.

840
00:51:21,000 --> 00:51:22,000
And then just writing it down?

841
00:51:22,000 --> 00:51:24,000
Writing it down. Handwritten records.

842
00:51:24,000 --> 00:51:27,000
And can anything insightful be gleaned from that data?

843
00:51:27,000 --> 00:51:34,000
Yeah, NOAA has recently created a reanalysis data set that can be used to make a modern day forecast.

844
00:51:34,000 --> 00:51:37,000
So we can use modern forecasting to look at an event from 1950?

845
00:51:37,000 --> 00:51:38,000
That's right.

846
00:51:38,000 --> 00:51:39,000
Okay, can we see it?

847
00:51:39,000 --> 00:51:40,000
Sure.

848
00:51:40,000 --> 00:51:42,000
We're all familiar with weather forecasting.

849
00:51:42,000 --> 00:51:47,000
Where meteorologists use observations and computer modeling to predict the weather.

850
00:51:47,000 --> 00:51:51,000
Now, Dan is employing a cutting-edge technology called hindcasting.

851
00:51:51,000 --> 00:51:59,000
Using known data from the past and mathematical models of how storms behave created an historic weather map.

852
00:51:59,000 --> 00:52:05,000
He's about to give me a glimpse into the past and the future at the very same time.

853
00:52:05,000 --> 00:52:10,000
Whoa!

854
00:52:35,000 --> 00:52:44,000
Dave Schwab and meteorologist Dan Cobb are using cutting-edge technology to try to pinpoint the location of the missing plane.

855
00:52:44,000 --> 00:52:48,000
This is the evening of June 23rd, 1950, and this is our squall right here.

856
00:52:48,000 --> 00:52:50,000
This is the formation of the squall line.

857
00:52:50,000 --> 00:52:55,000
It develops and then accelerates southward across southern end of Lake Michigan.

858
00:52:55,000 --> 00:52:58,000
We're talking about something that's stretching across a couple of states here almost.

859
00:52:58,000 --> 00:53:00,000
This is hundreds of miles across, right?

860
00:53:00,000 --> 00:53:01,000
Right.

861
00:53:01,000 --> 00:53:03,000
It's not just weather, but I know that red is bad.

862
00:53:03,000 --> 00:53:05,000
Tell me what's happening in all these red cells as it comes down.

863
00:53:05,000 --> 00:53:11,000
Those cells are areas where there's just extreme turbulence, winds at speeds of 100 miles per hour,

864
00:53:11,000 --> 00:53:15,000
large hail, torrential rain, a lot of lightning in those areas too.

865
00:53:15,000 --> 00:53:17,000
Definitely a place you don't want to be.

866
00:53:17,000 --> 00:53:18,000
Right, a nasty place.

867
00:53:18,000 --> 00:53:19,000
Right.

868
00:53:19,000 --> 00:53:23,000
So even today, this is something that a modern jetliner would not want to fly into.

869
00:53:23,000 --> 00:53:26,000
Right, they absolutely do everything they can to avoid those areas.

870
00:53:26,000 --> 00:53:32,000
This really visually speaks volumes about how dangerous a storm system they were flying into.

871
00:53:32,000 --> 00:53:38,000
So I know that you worked, Dave, with Valerie, when she started her search,

872
00:53:38,000 --> 00:53:42,000
to help define this outer perimeter of the search area.

873
00:53:42,000 --> 00:53:50,000
From the wind records, we were able to create a path that a piece of debris might have followed

874
00:53:50,000 --> 00:53:52,000
if it was only being pushed by the wind.

875
00:53:52,000 --> 00:53:56,000
And that gave her a pretty massive diameter of about 500 square miles.

876
00:53:56,000 --> 00:54:01,000
So what's changed now? How are you able to refine that?

877
00:54:01,000 --> 00:54:09,000
We can combine the wind and the currents to give a much more precise estimate of where that debris might have come from.

878
00:54:09,000 --> 00:54:16,000
Generally speaking, what percentage of the debris's movement is owed to current and what percentage is owed to the wind?

879
00:54:16,000 --> 00:54:19,000
Well, it depends on how much is sticking above the water.

880
00:54:19,000 --> 00:54:20,000
Yeah.

881
00:54:20,000 --> 00:54:24,000
We use 3% of the wind and 100% of the current.

882
00:54:24,000 --> 00:54:27,000
You have to use both those things in concert to be accurate.

883
00:54:27,000 --> 00:54:28,000
Yes.

884
00:54:28,000 --> 00:54:30,000
So we're talking about some pretty advanced computer modeling here.

885
00:54:30,000 --> 00:54:33,000
I like to think of it as forensic oceanography.

886
00:54:33,000 --> 00:54:34,000
I love that.

887
00:54:35,000 --> 00:54:42,000
As Valerie told me earlier, the Coast Guard recovered nearly 7,000 pounds of debris from 2501.

888
00:54:42,000 --> 00:54:48,000
Pieces of aluminum, bits of seat cushions, paneling, and hundreds of personal effects.

889
00:54:48,000 --> 00:54:53,000
I read their meticulous logs, noting the location and time of each discovery.

890
00:54:53,000 --> 00:55:01,000
Using those data points as a reference and weather service models of wind and current after the crash, Dave ran a simulation.

891
00:55:01,000 --> 00:55:05,000
Actually, he ran 2,600 simulations.

892
00:55:05,000 --> 00:55:09,000
Each one, a virtual plane crash in a different part of Lake Michigan.

893
00:55:09,000 --> 00:55:11,000
So let me make sure I understand this.

894
00:55:11,000 --> 00:55:15,000
Each one of these hypothetical crashes generates a debris path.

895
00:55:15,000 --> 00:55:18,000
These black triangles are where the Coast Guard ships were finding debris.

896
00:55:18,000 --> 00:55:19,000
Is that right?

897
00:55:19,000 --> 00:55:20,000
Exactly.

898
00:55:20,000 --> 00:55:25,000
So I can't help but notice that in the middle of all this is this big cluster of red dots.

899
00:55:25,000 --> 00:55:33,000
After we ran the simulation, we looked at each of those tracks from the 2,600 potential crash sites.

900
00:55:33,000 --> 00:55:34,000
Right.

901
00:55:34,000 --> 00:55:41,000
And each of those tracks, we assigned a number to it based on how close it came to places where real debris was found.

902
00:55:41,000 --> 00:55:50,000
Dave explains that the red dots are the virtual crash sites where simulated debris best matched the location of real debris found by the Coast Guard.

903
00:55:50,000 --> 00:55:56,000
So put another way, there's probably an airplane wreck somewhere in there.

904
00:55:56,000 --> 00:55:59,000
That's where my money would be.

905
00:55:59,000 --> 00:56:06,000
The new target is safely within the unsearched area of Dave's original 500-mile zone.

906
00:56:06,000 --> 00:56:09,000
It means we've got a new place to scan.

907
00:56:09,000 --> 00:56:11,000
This is amazing detective work.

908
00:56:11,000 --> 00:56:12,000
I really, really appreciate this.

909
00:56:12,000 --> 00:56:13,000
Valerie's going to flip out.

910
00:56:13,000 --> 00:56:15,000
I can't wait to show her this data.

911
00:56:15,000 --> 00:56:16,000
One final question.

912
00:56:16,000 --> 00:56:18,000
Am I going to need an umbrella tomorrow, Dan?

913
00:56:18,000 --> 00:56:19,000
No, I think you're going to be good.

914
00:56:19,000 --> 00:56:20,000
I'm good?

915
00:56:20,000 --> 00:56:21,000
Yep.

916
00:56:21,000 --> 00:56:22,000
Okay.

917
00:56:22,000 --> 00:56:23,000
It's not going to rain tomorrow.

918
00:56:23,000 --> 00:56:24,000
You heard it here.

919
00:56:24,000 --> 00:56:32,000
The Weather Service scientists have been able to take 70-year-old data and tell us with eerie precision what occurred on June 24, 1950.

920
00:56:32,000 --> 00:56:44,000
Now armed with a truly refined search zone, I speed back to Valerie and Jack at the South Haven Marina, where for this crucial search, she's called in some much-needed help.

921
00:56:44,000 --> 00:56:48,000
Josh, this is Sergeant Peros from the Michigan State Police.

922
00:56:48,000 --> 00:56:49,000
Pleasure meeting you.

923
00:56:49,000 --> 00:56:51,000
I feel underdressed suddenly.

924
00:56:51,000 --> 00:56:53,000
Or about to be arrested.

925
00:56:53,000 --> 00:56:54,000
So what's going on?

926
00:56:54,000 --> 00:56:55,000
Valerie reached out.

927
00:56:55,000 --> 00:56:57,000
I believe we've got a narrowed down search area.

928
00:56:57,000 --> 00:56:59,000
This modeling now has it narrowed way down.

929
00:56:59,000 --> 00:57:01,000
Yes, and we'd like to give a hand.

930
00:57:01,000 --> 00:57:03,000
We've got some state-of-the-art tech on board.

931
00:57:03,000 --> 00:57:04,000
Okay.

932
00:57:04,000 --> 00:57:08,000
And we hope that it can be of assistance and that it'll get the job done.

933
00:57:08,000 --> 00:57:09,000
That sounds great.

934
00:57:09,000 --> 00:57:10,000
Let's do it.

935
00:57:10,000 --> 00:57:12,000
Come on aboard.

936
00:57:12,000 --> 00:57:17,000
We exit the harbor in the Sergeant's patrol boat.

937
00:57:17,000 --> 00:57:23,000
Having been in the backseat of a cruiser before, long story, I know the cops have some souped up gear.

938
00:57:23,000 --> 00:57:25,000
Officer, how fast does this go?

939
00:57:25,000 --> 00:57:27,000
Let's find out.

940
00:57:27,000 --> 00:57:28,000
Coming up.

941
00:57:28,000 --> 00:57:30,000
Coming up.

942
00:57:30,000 --> 00:57:32,000
Woo-hoo!

943
00:57:32,000 --> 00:57:34,000
Woo-hoo-hoo!

944
00:57:34,000 --> 00:57:39,000
This is awesome!

945
00:57:39,000 --> 00:57:41,000
Oh, yeah!

946
00:57:41,000 --> 00:57:45,000
If there's a speed limit out here, I'm pretty sure we're breaking it.

947
00:57:45,000 --> 00:57:50,000
After the fastest mile I've ever traveled on water, we get to the new search area.

948
00:57:50,000 --> 00:57:52,000
They were coming up on the area.

949
00:57:52,000 --> 00:57:53,000
This is it?

950
00:57:53,000 --> 00:57:54,000
This is it.

951
00:57:54,000 --> 00:57:56,000
Okay, we're in the zone.

952
00:57:57,000 --> 00:58:02,000
And Sergeant Peros brings out the gear he hopes will find 2501.

953
00:58:02,000 --> 00:58:04,000
So, Josh, this is our secret weapon.

954
00:58:04,000 --> 00:58:05,000
Look at this.

955
00:58:05,000 --> 00:58:08,000
So, this is an AUV, is that right?

956
00:58:08,000 --> 00:58:09,000
That's correct.

957
00:58:09,000 --> 00:58:11,000
These things are insane.

958
00:58:11,000 --> 00:58:13,000
It's literally like a mini-submarine.

959
00:58:13,000 --> 00:58:21,000
AUVs, or Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, have been a 21st century game changer in search and recovery operations.

960
00:58:21,000 --> 00:58:25,000
We program the course for it, and we feed that course into the vehicle.

961
00:58:25,000 --> 00:58:30,000
So, this goes off on its own, does the scanning, and then hypothetically returns to you?

962
00:58:30,000 --> 00:58:31,000
Correct.

963
00:58:31,000 --> 00:58:35,000
The AUV is equipped with the latest sonar technology to map the lake bottom.

964
00:58:35,000 --> 00:58:40,000
It's like a lawnmower that mows by itself, only much more expensive.

965
00:58:40,000 --> 00:58:43,000
I'm just going to drop her in the water and let it do its business.

966
00:58:43,000 --> 00:58:44,000
Okay.

967
00:58:44,000 --> 00:58:48,000
We carefully lower the AUV over the side.

968
00:58:48,000 --> 00:58:50,000
All right, she's in the water.

969
00:58:51,000 --> 00:58:55,000
Sergeant Parros programs in the waypoints, and we're ready to launch.

970
00:58:55,000 --> 00:58:58,000
So, all you got to do is push the green button, and it'll be on its way.

971
00:58:58,000 --> 00:59:00,000
Now that honor goes to you.

972
00:59:00,000 --> 00:59:01,000
Here's hoping.

973
00:59:02,000 --> 00:59:03,000
She's off?

974
00:59:14,000 --> 00:59:19,000
I'm with investigator Valerie Van Heest and Michigan State Police Sergeant Randall Parros.

975
00:59:19,000 --> 00:59:27,000
Searching for the wreck of Northwest Flight 2501, an airliner lost in a storm off Lake Michigan in 1950.

976
00:59:28,000 --> 00:59:35,000
Now, we're using a sonar equipped autonomous underwater vehicle to scan for debris from the lost plane.

977
00:59:35,000 --> 00:59:38,000
So, all you got to do is push the green button, and it'll be on its way.

978
00:59:38,000 --> 00:59:40,000
Now that honor goes to you.

979
00:59:40,000 --> 00:59:41,000
Here's hoping.

980
00:59:42,000 --> 00:59:49,000
The torpedo springs to life and sails off to map the lake, leaving me with much less to do than usual.

981
00:59:49,000 --> 00:59:50,000
All right.

982
00:59:50,000 --> 00:59:51,000
Now we...

983
00:59:51,000 --> 00:59:52,000
Wait.

984
00:59:52,000 --> 00:59:53,000
Wait.

985
00:59:53,000 --> 00:59:56,000
Okay, let's go wait.

986
00:59:56,000 --> 00:59:57,000
Okay.

987
00:59:59,000 --> 01:00:03,000
RoboCops is going to be out on patrol for the next three hours.

988
01:00:03,000 --> 01:00:07,000
So, I do some light reading while Valerie catches a few Zs.

989
01:00:11,000 --> 01:00:16,000
Okay, two hours and 52 minutes left.

990
01:00:20,000 --> 01:00:23,000
And exactly two hours and 52 minutes later.

991
01:00:23,000 --> 01:00:25,000
Hey, the AUV's up.

992
01:00:25,000 --> 01:00:26,000
We got it.

993
01:00:28,000 --> 01:00:31,000
Well, let's hope there's something on there.

994
01:00:32,000 --> 01:00:40,000
We retrieve the AUV, load the data onto a laptop, and start combing through the results of the day's subject.

995
01:00:40,000 --> 01:00:42,000
The results of the day's sonar scan.

996
01:00:43,000 --> 01:00:46,000
So, this looks a lot like what we were seeing on the boat the other day.

997
01:00:46,000 --> 01:00:47,000
Exactly.

998
01:00:47,000 --> 01:00:49,000
This pretty featureless bottom, right?

999
01:00:49,000 --> 01:00:54,000
I really think we're looking for a scattered debris field, maybe a couple of hard hits for the engines.

1000
01:00:54,000 --> 01:00:55,000
Right.

1001
01:00:55,000 --> 01:01:00,000
Miles of lake bottom scroll by, and all we see is nothing.

1002
01:01:00,000 --> 01:01:02,000
But then...

1003
01:01:02,000 --> 01:01:04,000
Oh, gee.

1004
01:01:04,000 --> 01:01:08,000
That looks like that could be debris.

1005
01:01:08,000 --> 01:01:09,000
Here?

1006
01:01:09,000 --> 01:01:10,000
Yeah.

1007
01:01:10,000 --> 01:01:13,000
Can you zoom in on that, Randy?

1008
01:01:13,000 --> 01:01:14,000
Yes.

1009
01:01:15,000 --> 01:01:17,000
That looks like debris.

1010
01:01:17,000 --> 01:01:19,000
Oh my goodness.

1011
01:01:20,000 --> 01:01:22,000
Look at this.

1012
01:01:22,000 --> 01:01:24,000
Oh my goodness.

1013
01:01:24,000 --> 01:01:25,000
Disagree.

1014
01:01:25,000 --> 01:01:29,000
I mean, that looks like it could be an engine and that could be body, right?

1015
01:01:29,000 --> 01:01:30,000
Yep.

1016
01:01:31,000 --> 01:01:32,000
Oh, my word.

1017
01:01:32,000 --> 01:01:36,000
This is what it means to look for something for 15 years.

1018
01:01:36,000 --> 01:01:41,000
Valerie is overwhelmed at the possibility of finally locating the plane.

1019
01:01:41,000 --> 01:01:43,000
This could be it.

1020
01:01:43,000 --> 01:01:45,000
We're close, yet so far.

1021
01:01:45,000 --> 01:01:47,000
How deep down is that target?

1022
01:01:47,000 --> 01:01:48,000
About 270.

1023
01:01:48,000 --> 01:01:49,000
Can your dive guys get down to 270?

1024
01:01:49,000 --> 01:01:50,000
Yeah.

1025
01:01:52,000 --> 01:01:56,000
Diving to those depths requires special training and special equipment,

1026
01:01:56,000 --> 01:02:00,000
which means I'm not the one who's going to be able to fetch whatever's down there.

1027
01:02:00,000 --> 01:02:03,000
Valerie has a team, though, that can reach the bottom.

1028
01:02:03,000 --> 01:02:04,000
Let's go.

1029
01:02:04,000 --> 01:02:05,000
Let's go.

1030
01:02:05,000 --> 01:02:08,000
Yeah, let's get down there and see what this is.

1031
01:02:08,000 --> 01:02:12,000
Valerie radios her colleagues back at the MSRA headquarters,

1032
01:02:12,000 --> 01:02:16,000
and 20 minutes later, we rendezvous with Todd White and Jeff Voss,

1033
01:02:16,000 --> 01:02:20,000
divers able to venture down to our sonar target.

1034
01:02:20,000 --> 01:02:22,000
How you doing guys?

1035
01:02:22,000 --> 01:02:23,000
Good, how are you?

1036
01:02:23,000 --> 01:02:24,000
Well, we got a target.

1037
01:02:24,000 --> 01:02:25,000
All right.

1038
01:02:25,000 --> 01:02:26,000
Yeah, this could be it.

1039
01:02:26,000 --> 01:02:27,000
Yeah, cool.

1040
01:02:27,000 --> 01:02:28,000
Let's check it out.

1041
01:02:28,000 --> 01:02:30,000
Okay, here we go.

1042
01:02:30,000 --> 01:02:36,000
Diving at 300 feet requires a specialized mixture of oxygen, helium, and nitrogen.

1043
01:02:36,000 --> 01:02:40,000
Because at those depths, compressed air is actually toxic.

1044
01:02:40,000 --> 01:02:42,000
And due to the frigid cold of Lake Michigan,

1045
01:02:42,000 --> 01:02:47,000
the dive team dons thick dry suits to combat the risk of hypothermia.

1046
01:02:48,000 --> 01:02:50,000
The target's at 270 feet.

1047
01:02:50,000 --> 01:02:52,000
So what's your bottom time at 270?

1048
01:02:52,000 --> 01:02:53,000
We can do about 20 minutes.

1049
01:02:53,000 --> 01:02:54,000
20 minutes.

1050
01:02:54,000 --> 01:02:55,000
Okay, so that's all we got.

1051
01:02:55,000 --> 01:02:56,000
Okay.

1052
01:02:56,000 --> 01:02:58,000
Because of the pressure in deep water,

1053
01:02:58,000 --> 01:03:01,000
the diver's time at the bottom is extremely limited.

1054
01:03:01,000 --> 01:03:04,000
Whatever's down there, they need to find it fast.

1055
01:03:04,000 --> 01:03:06,000
What kind of target were you going after?

1056
01:03:06,000 --> 01:03:08,000
I mean, it looked like a scatter.

1057
01:03:08,000 --> 01:03:11,000
Yeah, big debris field was really broken up,

1058
01:03:11,000 --> 01:03:15,000
but there looked like a couple of big hits that might be engines down there.

1059
01:03:15,000 --> 01:03:16,000
Okay.

1060
01:03:16,000 --> 01:03:18,000
So, we'll stay in touch from up here.

1061
01:03:18,000 --> 01:03:19,000
Good luck.

1062
01:03:19,000 --> 01:03:20,000
All right, well do.

1063
01:03:20,000 --> 01:03:22,000
Yeah, okay, let's do it guys.

1064
01:03:22,000 --> 01:03:26,000
Jeff and Todd climb into the water and prepare to dive.

1065
01:03:27,000 --> 01:03:29,000
All right, got speed.

1066
01:03:37,000 --> 01:03:39,000
Okay, we're dropping down.

1067
01:03:40,000 --> 01:03:45,000
The dive team slowly, carefully descends down the guide rope toward the target.

1068
01:03:47,000 --> 01:03:49,000
What are the conditions like?

1069
01:03:50,000 --> 01:03:53,000
We're about 50 feet down.

1070
01:03:53,000 --> 01:03:56,000
Water is definitely getting colder.

1071
01:03:59,000 --> 01:04:01,000
Okay guys, let us know when you hit the bottom.

1072
01:04:01,000 --> 01:04:03,000
Okay, we'll do.

1073
01:04:05,000 --> 01:04:07,000
Finally, after several tense minutes,

1074
01:04:07,000 --> 01:04:09,000
the team reaches the end of the rope,

1075
01:04:09,000 --> 01:04:11,000
and our clock starts.

1076
01:04:12,000 --> 01:04:14,000
We're at the bottom.

1077
01:04:17,000 --> 01:04:18,000
Anything?

1078
01:04:20,000 --> 01:04:21,000
Nothing yet.

1079
01:04:21,000 --> 01:04:24,000
We may have tripped it off the target.

1080
01:04:25,000 --> 01:04:26,000
Have a swim around.

1081
01:04:26,000 --> 01:04:28,000
It's a pretty big debris field on the sonar,

1082
01:04:28,000 --> 01:04:30,000
so you should bump into it sooner than later.

1083
01:04:31,000 --> 01:04:33,000
Visibility is good.

1084
01:04:33,000 --> 01:04:35,000
Not seeing any wreckage.

1085
01:04:36,000 --> 01:04:39,000
We definitely saw some pieces that were sticking up,

1086
01:04:39,000 --> 01:04:41,000
so they've got to be visible.

1087
01:04:41,000 --> 01:04:42,000
Got it.

1088
01:04:42,000 --> 01:04:46,000
We're still looking, turning through bottom time fast.

1089
01:04:46,000 --> 01:04:49,000
The clock ticks, and we only have five minutes left

1090
01:04:49,000 --> 01:04:52,000
before the divers have to begin to surface.

1091
01:04:52,000 --> 01:04:54,000
Despite the clarity of our sonar image,

1092
01:04:54,000 --> 01:04:57,000
they haven't yet found anything.

1093
01:04:57,000 --> 01:05:00,000
But just as our time is about to run out...

1094
01:05:00,000 --> 01:05:03,000
Josh, I think I've got something.

1095
01:05:03,000 --> 01:05:05,000
You got debris?

1096
01:05:05,000 --> 01:05:07,000
Looks like metal.

1097
01:05:07,000 --> 01:05:09,000
Cut each pearl of flame.

1098
01:05:17,000 --> 01:05:21,000
My expedition may have led me to the icy waters of Lake Michigan,

1099
01:05:21,000 --> 01:05:24,000
but along the way, I made time to take in what may be

1100
01:05:24,000 --> 01:05:27,000
the greatest gathering in the Mitten State,

1101
01:05:27,000 --> 01:05:30,000
the antique flywheelers tractor show.

1102
01:05:33,000 --> 01:05:37,000
This thing, 1920s John Deere tractor that was modified

1103
01:05:37,000 --> 01:05:41,000
by a local genius named Norm Bunk.

1104
01:05:41,000 --> 01:05:43,000
It has about three horses,

1105
01:05:43,000 --> 01:05:46,000
but all of that boolia, she's got all the bells and whistles.

1106
01:05:46,000 --> 01:05:49,000
Literally. All the bells, all the whistles.

1107
01:05:58,000 --> 01:06:00,000
Oh, my God.

1108
01:06:01,000 --> 01:06:03,000
I'm never getting out of this.

1109
01:06:03,000 --> 01:06:05,000
This is the happiest I've ever been in my life.

1110
01:06:05,000 --> 01:06:08,000
I'm from Boston. Pretty much all we want to do is honk at people.

1111
01:06:08,000 --> 01:06:12,000
I'm from Boston. Pretty much all we want to do is honk at people.

1112
01:06:13,000 --> 01:06:16,000
I'm from Boston. Pretty much all we want to do is honk at people.

1113
01:06:43,000 --> 01:06:45,000
The feet below the surface of Lake Michigan,

1114
01:06:45,000 --> 01:06:48,000
our deep diving team may have just hit paydirt.

1115
01:06:52,000 --> 01:06:54,000
You got debris.

1116
01:07:00,000 --> 01:07:04,000
Anything aviation related is going to have a serial number stamped on it.

1117
01:07:09,000 --> 01:07:12,000
Anything else that you're seeing down there that you can describe?

1118
01:07:13,000 --> 01:07:15,000
Not so frustrating. You're not going to be able to see it.

1119
01:07:15,000 --> 01:07:17,000
There's more debris nearby.

1120
01:07:17,000 --> 01:07:20,000
Twisted metal. Really damaged.

1121
01:07:20,000 --> 01:07:22,000
Here's how water is.

1122
01:07:22,000 --> 01:07:25,000
If there's nothing else, we should take a look at the piece you have.

1123
01:07:25,000 --> 01:07:27,000
Just bring it up.

1124
01:07:27,000 --> 01:07:29,000
We need to know if this is flight 2501.

1125
01:07:29,000 --> 01:07:32,000
Got it. We're headed out now.

1126
01:07:32,000 --> 01:07:35,000
But our deep divers can't just pop back up.

1127
01:07:35,000 --> 01:07:39,000
If they surface too quickly, they'll fall victim to the bends.

1128
01:07:39,000 --> 01:07:44,000
A potentially deadly condition where gas bubbles form in the bloodstream.

1129
01:07:44,000 --> 01:07:47,000
So they'll have to surface in stages.

1130
01:07:47,000 --> 01:07:53,000
Jeff, if you want to hang on the line, I'll come get it for you during your decompression stop and I can bring it up.

1131
01:07:53,000 --> 01:07:55,000
Copy that.

1132
01:07:55,000 --> 01:07:56,000
I'm going to go grab it.

1133
01:07:56,000 --> 01:07:57,000
All right.

1134
01:07:57,000 --> 01:08:02,000
While Jeff and Todd pause to decompress, I gear up and dive in.

1135
01:08:10,000 --> 01:08:14,000
I meet them at 100 feet to retrieve the evidence.

1136
01:08:14,000 --> 01:08:17,000
Here you go, Josh. That's your pitch.

1137
01:08:17,000 --> 01:08:21,000
Whoa. Okay, you guys, finish your safety stop now.

1138
01:08:21,000 --> 01:08:25,000
I'm going to clean this off best I can and come to the surface.

1139
01:08:33,000 --> 01:08:34,000
Hey.

1140
01:08:34,000 --> 01:08:35,000
What do you got?

1141
01:08:35,000 --> 01:08:36,000
I got a present for you.

1142
01:08:36,000 --> 01:08:38,000
Oh boy.

1143
01:08:39,000 --> 01:08:40,000
It's from a plane, right?

1144
01:08:40,000 --> 01:08:41,000
Yeah.

1145
01:08:41,000 --> 01:08:42,000
Look, that's safety wire.

1146
01:08:42,000 --> 01:08:43,000
That's aviation.

1147
01:08:43,000 --> 01:08:44,000
That's aviation, for sure.

1148
01:08:44,000 --> 01:08:48,000
Safety wire is used to secure bolts that could loosen due to vibration.

1149
01:08:48,000 --> 01:08:52,000
It's a strong indicator that this came from an airplane.

1150
01:08:52,000 --> 01:08:53,000
Look at the serial stamp on it.

1151
01:08:53,000 --> 01:08:54,000
Yeah, right.

1152
01:08:54,000 --> 01:08:55,000
Does it look modern to you?

1153
01:08:55,000 --> 01:08:56,000
Yeah.

1154
01:08:59,000 --> 01:09:00,000
Probably not 2501.

1155
01:09:00,000 --> 01:09:01,000
No.

1156
01:09:02,000 --> 01:09:06,000
We'll be able to look up the serial number and every plane is marked.

1157
01:09:06,000 --> 01:09:07,000
But hold on. I don't get this.

1158
01:09:07,000 --> 01:09:09,000
That's a plane part, no question.

1159
01:09:09,000 --> 01:09:11,000
What the hell is it from?

1160
01:09:11,000 --> 01:09:15,000
There are no other planes that have gone down big commercial planes.

1161
01:09:15,000 --> 01:09:17,000
We've got another mystery on our hands.

1162
01:09:17,000 --> 01:09:18,000
Yeah.

1163
01:09:20,000 --> 01:09:22,000
I thought you had it.

1164
01:09:22,000 --> 01:09:23,000
I really did.

1165
01:09:23,000 --> 01:09:25,000
I thought we did too.

1166
01:09:25,000 --> 01:09:26,000
This is how it goes.

1167
01:09:26,000 --> 01:09:27,000
Yeah. Welcome to our world.

1168
01:09:27,000 --> 01:09:28,000
Yeah.

1169
01:09:28,000 --> 01:09:29,000
Well, I'm happy to be here.

1170
01:09:29,000 --> 01:09:30,000
Yeah.

1171
01:09:30,000 --> 01:09:31,000
Frustrated, but happy to be here.

1172
01:09:31,000 --> 01:09:32,000
Yeah.

1173
01:09:33,000 --> 01:09:40,000
Valerie's search for the lost Northwest plane now 15 years old is not yet finished.

1174
01:09:40,000 --> 01:09:42,000
So the hunt goes on.

1175
01:09:43,000 --> 01:09:50,000
She and her team have crossed off another sector of their search zone and they won't stop until the plane is found.

1176
01:09:50,000 --> 01:09:54,000
And the families of those on board get some small measure of peace.

1177
01:09:54,000 --> 01:09:59,000
As for my journey, there's one more place I want to visit before I return home.

1178
01:09:59,000 --> 01:10:02,000
The Lakeview Cemetery in South Haven.

1179
01:10:06,000 --> 01:10:19,000
In 2008, Valerie's detective work led her to discover that the remains of victims recovered by investigators back in 1950 were actually buried in an unmarked grave in the nearby city of St. Joseph.

1180
01:10:19,000 --> 01:10:23,000
In 2015, another mass grave was discovered here in South Haven.

1181
01:10:23,000 --> 01:10:30,000
Stunningly, in both cases, the families of the victims were never notified and there were no markers to commemorate the accident.

1182
01:10:30,000 --> 01:10:32,000
Well, that's changed.

1183
01:10:32,000 --> 01:10:37,000
Thanks to some generous donations, Valerie and her team have organized the placement of two headstones.

1184
01:10:37,000 --> 01:10:41,000
They've since held memorial services in both locations.

1185
01:10:41,000 --> 01:10:49,000
And now, finally, the passengers and crew of Northwest Airlines Flight 2501 have a place to be remembered.

1186
01:10:50,000 --> 01:10:58,000
These markers are the only tangible monuments to the tragic events of the night of June 23, 1950.

1187
01:10:58,000 --> 01:11:01,000
The only remembrance of those lost in the crash.

1188
01:11:01,000 --> 01:11:09,000
But as more people become aware of Northwest 2501's story, the families need no longer mourn alone.

1189
01:11:09,000 --> 01:11:15,000
The airplane part we found at the bottom of Lake Michigan was identified by using its serial number.

1190
01:11:15,000 --> 01:11:23,000
It is a clamp from a 747 engine that fell from the sky in 2004.

1191
01:11:23,000 --> 01:11:28,000
This expedition has reminded me of a terrible truth.

1192
01:11:28,000 --> 01:11:34,000
That advancement in aviation safety is, in large part, the result of crashes.

1193
01:11:34,000 --> 01:11:36,000
We learn from failure.

1194
01:11:36,000 --> 01:11:41,000
And sadly, we're not through learning.

1195
01:11:42,000 --> 01:11:46,000
The world was shocked when Malaysia Air Flight 370 vanished,

1196
01:11:46,000 --> 01:11:54,000
because even 70 years after Northwest 2501, planes were still not being tracked in real-time over water,

1197
01:11:54,000 --> 01:11:57,000
where radar cannot reach them.

1198
01:11:57,000 --> 01:12:01,000
But now, finally, that's changing.

1199
01:12:02,000 --> 01:12:08,000
In the past year, a company known as Aeron is using a network of 66 satellites

1200
01:12:08,000 --> 01:12:12,000
to implement a global aviation tracking system.

1201
01:12:12,000 --> 01:12:14,000
And here it is.

1202
01:12:14,000 --> 01:12:20,000
This is a snapshot of the more than 10,000 planes circling the globe at this very moment,

1203
01:12:20,000 --> 01:12:23,000
carrying more than one million people.

1204
01:12:23,000 --> 01:12:27,000
Mothers, fathers, children.

1205
01:12:27,000 --> 01:12:35,000
This is the legacy of Northwest 2501, that we remember that their loss is a charge to do better.

1206
01:12:35,000 --> 01:12:42,000
To connect the world and to strive for a day when no passenger is ever lost again.