The plane was assessed to have flown into Mount Gannett at full speed, making impact at an elevation of 8,000 feet. Six days passed before the weather permitted a search team to survey the site of the crash.
Less than 60 miles from its destination, the plane crashed into the side of Mount Gannett and left no survivors. However, the flight was equipped only with a radio beacon receiver, barometric altimeter to gauge altitude, and a stopwatch as a means to find the runway. Under instrument flight conditions, characterized by poor weather, pilots must navigate without outside visual references. According to Robert Orlove, a master aviation mechanic and cousin of GlacierHub editor Ben Orlove, landing at a nearby diversion airport was impossible, forcing the pilot to resort to an instrument approach to Anchorage. On the day of the crash, weather near Anchorage was severe, with dense fog and swirling snow obscuring visibility. military service members aboard the flight never made it to Elmendorf. Nicknamed “ Old Shaky” for its tendency to vibrate during flight, the enormous Douglas C-124 Globemaster II departed from McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, Washington early on November 22, 1952. A Douglas C-124 Globemaster II, the same model plane that crashed into Mount Gannett in 1952, flies over San Francisco Bay.
