covediver
Contributor
Fatal Crossing: The Mysterious Disappearance of NWA Flight 2501 and the Quest for Answers. V.O. Van Heest, 2013. In-Depth Editions.
On June 24, 1950, a DC-4 operated as Northwest Airlines Flight 2501 approached Lake Michigan westbound for Minneapolis and intermediate points beyond terminating in Seattle. The flight departed LaGuardia in New Jersey earlier that day. A powerful squall line which had also formed earlier, approached Lake Michigan from the west moving east, morphing into a line that would run east to west along the southern portion of the lake, unbeknownst to the pilots of the ill-fated flight who, it is supposed tried to slip around the southern end of the line. The plane was never seen again, lost with all 58 souls on board, settling somewhere on the bottom of Lake Michigan.
Fatal Crossing is the story of that flight and the nearly two decade search of the lake for the wreckage. The search continues—the wreckage has not been found—but looking for it has yielded a number of historic wrecks and the submerged remains of flotsam and jetsam of past and near past history along this heavily transited section of the lake. It has involved a group of largely unrecognized and dedicated avocational maritime history enthusiasts, joined by one of the most recognized adventure fiction authors, Clive Cussler, and the group he supports, the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA).
Author V.O. Van Heest, a member of the former, the Michigan Shipwreck Research Association, writes a fascinating story that involves air transport in its late adolescence in post-War America at a time when most people still rode the train for intercity transport, maritime commerce and history of the Great Lakes, and the search for the artifacts of that history, both on the water from small boats towing high tech sensors and in countless archives spread throughout the region. But this book is also a study in the lives of the persons on board, the pilots and passengers, the families of the victims and the people drawn into the search. Her search for descendants of the victims and construction of the personal histories is very reminiscent of the story told in the book Fatal Dive which tells the story of the search for and discovery of the submarine USS Grunion which was lost on patrol in the Aleutian Islands until the story of its final engagement with enemy vessels came to light.
Van Heest carefully reconstructs the flight’s path integrating aspects of airline operations, meteorology, aerodynamics, air navigation, what aviation safety investigators would later call “human factors” and aviation law. She does this quite well. With my background in aeronautics, I was on familiar grounds reading her account of the flight. Similarly, with my background in maritime history, I could easily follow her description of the search for the details and wreckage of Flight 2501, the hours spent tracking down leads, the excitement of finds, mostly unanticipated, and the frustration of not being able to close the search with the discovery of the wreck. This is a task not to be lightly undertaken. The Great Lakes are steeped in maritime lore and legend, often the subject of family stories (as it is in my case with my great grandfather an engineer on Great Lakes steamers, one of which sank and was raised). Much of it lies just out of sight, some of it has to be searched for and patiently extracted in small and not so small archives and collections and in endless hours of “mowing the lawn" search pattern from small boats. However, the book is so well and clearly written that specialized knowledge is not needed to enjoy what is a mystery wrapped in an enigma.
In the end, the story never ceases, it continues on beyond the pages of the book, aided by the instantaneous connection provided by dedicated world wide web pages and Facebook. A case in point. The book describes how unrelated genealogical research led to the fortuitous discovery of a largely forgotten mass interment of the human remains recovered during the search for the downed airplane in a local cemetery. The closing chapter describes the memorial service and placing of a commemorative marker at the site in Riverview Cemetery in 2008. Yet just this past summer a second mass grave site of remains came to light New mass grave found for victims of NWA Flight 2501. The mystery of flight continues, the search for the story goes on.
On June 24, 1950, a DC-4 operated as Northwest Airlines Flight 2501 approached Lake Michigan westbound for Minneapolis and intermediate points beyond terminating in Seattle. The flight departed LaGuardia in New Jersey earlier that day. A powerful squall line which had also formed earlier, approached Lake Michigan from the west moving east, morphing into a line that would run east to west along the southern portion of the lake, unbeknownst to the pilots of the ill-fated flight who, it is supposed tried to slip around the southern end of the line. The plane was never seen again, lost with all 58 souls on board, settling somewhere on the bottom of Lake Michigan.
Fatal Crossing is the story of that flight and the nearly two decade search of the lake for the wreckage. The search continues—the wreckage has not been found—but looking for it has yielded a number of historic wrecks and the submerged remains of flotsam and jetsam of past and near past history along this heavily transited section of the lake. It has involved a group of largely unrecognized and dedicated avocational maritime history enthusiasts, joined by one of the most recognized adventure fiction authors, Clive Cussler, and the group he supports, the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA).
Author V.O. Van Heest, a member of the former, the Michigan Shipwreck Research Association, writes a fascinating story that involves air transport in its late adolescence in post-War America at a time when most people still rode the train for intercity transport, maritime commerce and history of the Great Lakes, and the search for the artifacts of that history, both on the water from small boats towing high tech sensors and in countless archives spread throughout the region. But this book is also a study in the lives of the persons on board, the pilots and passengers, the families of the victims and the people drawn into the search. Her search for descendants of the victims and construction of the personal histories is very reminiscent of the story told in the book Fatal Dive which tells the story of the search for and discovery of the submarine USS Grunion which was lost on patrol in the Aleutian Islands until the story of its final engagement with enemy vessels came to light.
Van Heest carefully reconstructs the flight’s path integrating aspects of airline operations, meteorology, aerodynamics, air navigation, what aviation safety investigators would later call “human factors” and aviation law. She does this quite well. With my background in aeronautics, I was on familiar grounds reading her account of the flight. Similarly, with my background in maritime history, I could easily follow her description of the search for the details and wreckage of Flight 2501, the hours spent tracking down leads, the excitement of finds, mostly unanticipated, and the frustration of not being able to close the search with the discovery of the wreck. This is a task not to be lightly undertaken. The Great Lakes are steeped in maritime lore and legend, often the subject of family stories (as it is in my case with my great grandfather an engineer on Great Lakes steamers, one of which sank and was raised). Much of it lies just out of sight, some of it has to be searched for and patiently extracted in small and not so small archives and collections and in endless hours of “mowing the lawn" search pattern from small boats. However, the book is so well and clearly written that specialized knowledge is not needed to enjoy what is a mystery wrapped in an enigma.
In the end, the story never ceases, it continues on beyond the pages of the book, aided by the instantaneous connection provided by dedicated world wide web pages and Facebook. A case in point. The book describes how unrelated genealogical research led to the fortuitous discovery of a largely forgotten mass interment of the human remains recovered during the search for the downed airplane in a local cemetery. The closing chapter describes the memorial service and placing of a commemorative marker at the site in Riverview Cemetery in 2008. Yet just this past summer a second mass grave site of remains came to light New mass grave found for victims of NWA Flight 2501. The mystery of flight continues, the search for the story goes on.
Last edited:
