KSTP TV: Northwest Airlines Plane Still Missing 64 Years After Lake Michigan Crash

Interview with Jack El-Hai, author of NON-STOP.

El-Hai Non-Stop coverA mystery similar to the Malaysian Airlines disappearance unfolded over Lake Michigan more than six decades ago.

The apparent crash of a Northwest Airlines flight in 1950 from New York to Minneapolis, at the time, was the worst airline disaster in U.S. history.

Fifty-eight people on board were never heard from again.

The pilot was 35-year old Captain Robert C. Lind of Hopkins, Minn. In the right hand seat was co-pilot Verne F. Wolfe, also 35, of Minneapolis. 25-year old stewardess Bonnie Ann Feldman was in the passenger compartment taking care of 55 passengers, identified as 27 women, 22 men and six children.

The plane has never been found and the cause of the alleged crash has never been determined.

Minneapolis author Jack El-Hai wrote about the accident in his book, "Non-Stop: A Turbulent History of Northwest Airlines."

"Some crews have gone out, searchers looking for it, but as of this time no one has seen it so the plane really did vanish from our sight," El-Hai said.

There are many theories as to what caused the plane to vanish from the radar. A line of thunderstorms which was in the area at the time is one of them.

The disappearance didn't make headlines for long, the Korean War started the day after the accident.

Watch the segment here.

Published in: KSTP TV
By: Joe Mazan