Transcribe your podcast
[00:00:00]

Hi, this is Melanne Verveer and this is Kim Mazzarelli and we're co-hosts of Senecas Conversations on Power and Purpose, brought to you by the Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio. We're launching a brand new season of this podcast, which brings you fascinating conversations with leaders like two time gold medalist, author and activist Abby Wambach and actor, producer and entrepreneur Justin Baldoni, among many others. Listen to Senecas conversations on power and purpose on the I Heart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts featured on planning Charlamagne God here.

[00:00:36]

And it is a privilege, an honor to introduce to you a new podcast, Great Shot, No Chaser, hosted by a queen named Tesla Figaro. She is the hood whisperer in this game of politics, debuting on my new Blackfin podcast network on NPR Radio. This is Tesla. On my podcast, we'll cover politics, black lifestyle, racial justice and food for the soul. This inspire you come fifth. True to me. Subscribe now listen. Straight shot, no chaser.

[00:00:59]

What Tesla figural on the radio app. Apple podcast or wherever you get your pocket. From my heart media, this is missing in Alaska, the story of two congressmen who vanished in 1972 and my quest to figure out what happened to them. I'm your host, John Walzak.

[00:01:28]

OK, so one of the most important tasks I gave you was to help me track down photos of the missing plane, a white and orange Cessna 310 C tail number and one eight one two H, because not only did the plane disappear, so too did any photographic evidence of it. I had never seen a photo of the plane. Neither had anyone I interviewed. That's why I asked for your help.

[00:02:01]

I reported that Don Johns, the pilot, bought the plane around 1970 and then repainted it via registration records, I figured out that specifically he purchased it in April 1972. So any photos showing the plane with its final paint scheme as it looked the day it disappeared, would have to have been taken during a six month span in 1972. Finding such photos would allow us to compare the missing plane's tail to a description of tail wreckage located by Bob Martinsen, the fishermen in Port X sometime around 1980.

[00:02:36]

Then we could better determine whether or not what Bob found belonged to the baggage Borg's plane or another plane. Unfortunately, we are still looking for those photos, the Holy Grail photos. But I do have good news with your help. We found other photos of the plane, two photos actually taken during the 1960s. These are the first known photos of the plane, the only known photos of the plane. And even though they're not the Holy Grail photos, they are important for history's sake.

[00:03:10]

About two months ago, we heard from a listener named Brian Power, a pilot, aviation preservationist and entrepreneur. At first, even with his expertise, Brian couldn't find any photos of the plane like me. He dug through old newspaper articles, Cessna ads, etc. Nothing. So Brian took a different approach. Looking at the registration records, he saw that the plane was based in Texas for about six and a half years from November 1960 through March 1967.

[00:03:43]

In fact, it was based in a town that shares his name, Bryan Texas, which is right next to the College Station and Texas A&M University.

[00:03:52]

At the time, fewer than 50000 people lived in the area. So, Brian, the pilot made an educated guess that the plane was stored at a local airport or what airport.

[00:04:03]

He started combing through Texas A&M digitized archives, looking for any photos taken at Eastwood in the 60s. And he quickly found two black and white images that appeared to show a Cessna 310 C at Eastwood. One was taken in 1961. The other is undated, but also appears to have been taken in the 60s. These two photos appear to show the same plane, the same Cessna 310 C. The question was whether or not they showed our plane and one eight one two H.

[00:04:38]

Odds were that yes, they did because Cessna only produced 263 tenses. So the odds of a three tennesee being photographed twice at Eastwood in the 60s and not being our plane were relatively low. But that wasn't enough. We needed more evidence. Unfortunately, the plane's tail number is not visible in either image. Frustrating, I know. So once again, I turned to two pilots whose help has been invaluable, Mike Travis and another man who prefers to remain anonymous.

[00:05:14]

The three of us comb through airworthiness records for our plane, looking for unique features that could help determine whether or not the Easter wood plane was indeed our plane. And the answer is almost certainly, yes, it is our plane. First off, after seeing the Easter road images, we immediately knew that we were looking at either a Cessna 310 B, C or early model D. These three models had straight tails. Later, models had angled tails, swapped tails.

[00:05:46]

The Easter Wood photos show a 310 with a straight tail.

[00:05:50]

With that, we moved on to a list of optional equipment that our plane, the missing plane had, including one a rotating beacon on top of the vertical stabilizer to a taxi light on the lower nose landing gear strut and three adare santtana on the nose. Both Easter. What photos show a rotating beacon? One shows a taxi light and one might show a nose antenna. It's hard to tell. So far, everything we saw indicated that the Easter wood plane was our plane.

[00:06:26]

The critical evidence ended up being two additional antennas. Initially, our plane had a Lear twenty two seventeen a, which is shaped like a shark fin. But in November 1960, the Lear antenna was removed and replaced with an RCA A Dash 13 B, which also has a very distinct shape. And guess what? Both Easter. What photos? The Texas photos taken in the 60s show the santtana, the ARCC A dash thirteen B furthermore, yet another antenna.

[00:07:00]

And A.C. Ardeche 15, which basically looks like a metal rod bent at a 90 degree angle, was also installed on our plane at a particular spot on its airframe after it left the factory and in one of the east. Or what photos? The higher resolution photo. You also see this antenna. So both photos located by Brian Power show a Cessna 310 C located at Eastwood Airport during the 1960s with the right optional equipment and the right antennas installed at the right locations.

[00:07:36]

This is very strong evidence that the Eastwood plane is our plane and won a one to H the plane that later disappeared in Alaska while carrying Congressman Hale Boggs and Nick Baggage.

[00:07:51]

This is why I ask for your help, because now Mia is a we, not a me. It's about what we can find, what we can accomplish. We just found the first known photos of a famous missing plane, the only known photos of the plane. So keep digging. Who knows? Maybe we'll find the Holy Grail photos, photos of the plane taken between April and October 1972. Heck, maybe we'll even find the plane itself. And one last thing.

[00:08:23]

One of these photos, the Eastwood photos, appears to show a dispute on the plane's tail. So it appears we found photographic evidence of what we reported based on documents in Episode 11 tail end that the missing plane did have icing equipment, equipment that for some reason the NTSB did not mention in its final accident report equipment that undermines the theory that the plane was brought down by ICE. Ben Bolen is our executive producer, Paul Decken is our supervising producer.

[00:09:09]

Chris Brown is our assistant producer. Seth, Nicholas Johnson is our producer. Sam Teagarden is our research assistant. And I'm your host and executive producer, Jon Walzak. You can find me and the photos on Twitter at at Jon Walzak and WAFL see the arc this week. I have a fun task for you. I want you to read a new book by John Bellmen called The Cold Vanish Seeking the Missing in North America's Wildlands. It's captivating a book of adventure and mystery written with empathy.

[00:09:44]

I read it in two days. It focuses on people who disappear on public lands, in wild places and a father's hunt for his missing son.

[00:09:54]

Again, it's called the Cold Vanish special thanks to Brian Power, Mike Travis and the third pilot who asked to remain anonymous. And thank you to Cushing Memorial, Library and Archives at Texas A&M University Archives. Again, we all support them. Missing in Alaska is a co-production of IPART Media and Greenford Media.

[00:10:21]

Who could be responsible for murdering a family of five in the most horrific way imaginable?

[00:10:26]

That's what occurred when quiet night in Essex, England, in 1985, when police ruled that 28 year old Sheila Cofell murdered her parents and six year old twin boys before killing herself as evidence continued to surface. However, the truth revealed something even more sinister. I'm Lauren Bright. Pachuco. Join me as we go behind the crime scenes of the new HBO series, the murders at White House Farm, as well as the infamous real life events that inspired it.

[00:10:56]

We'll talk to the people involved with the series and the case itself and find out why suspicion started to shift from Sheila to someone else and reflect on the fallout for all involved stream the murders at White House Farm now on Biomax and subscribe and listen to the murders at White House Farm, the podcast on the I Heart radio app, Biomax, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.