On October 16, 1972, a twin-engine Cessna 310C aircraft, piloted by 38-year-old Don Edgar Jones, departed from Anchorage, Alaska, destined for Juneau. Onboard were three passengers: Alaska Congressman Nick Begich, his aide Russell Brown, and House Majority Leader Hale Boggs of Louisiana, who were traveling for a campaign fundraiser for Begich. The flight, operated by Pan Alaska Airways, left Anchorage International Airport around 9:00 a.m.
under marginal weather conditions, including rain, low visibility, and turbulence. Jones, an experienced pilot with over 17,000 hours of flight time, filed a visual flight rules plan after takeoff, indicating his route would take them through Portage Pass. This was the last known communication from the aircraft.
When the Cessna, with the tail number N1812H, failed to arrive in Juneau, a massive search and rescue operation was launched. The search was one of the largest in American history, lasting 39 days and involving numerous military and civilian aircraft. Search efforts covered an estimated 325,000 square miles of Alaska's rugged terrain, but no trace of the plane, its pilot, or the passengers was ever discovered. The aircraft was not equipped with an emergency locator transmitter which would have sent out a distress signal upon impact, as a new state law mandating them had only recently taken effect and federal regulations were not yet in force. On December 29, 1972, Don Jones and the other three men aboard were officially declared dead.
The complete disappearance of the aircraft and its high-profile passengers has led to enduring speculation and various theories over the decades. The National Transportation Safety Board was unable to determine a probable cause for the accident due to the lack of evidence. While the prevailing belief is that the plane crashed due to the challenging weather conditions, possibly exacerbated by icing, the absence of any wreckage has left the case open to conjecture. The disappearance has been the subject of podcasts and continued investigation, exploring theories ranging from mechanical failure to more sinister plots, though none have been substantiated. The case of Don Jones and his passengers remains a prominent and haunting mystery in the history of Alaskan aviation.Last Seen: Oct 16, 1972
