WRECKommendations
Fatal Crossing: The Mysterious Disappearance of NWA Flight 2501 and the Quest for Answers Written by V.O. van Heest
On the night of June 23, 1950, Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2501, operating its daily transcontinental service between New York City and Seattle, flew into a severe thunderstorm squall line and disappeared forever… at least for now. The flight was carrying 55 passengers and three crew members, and the loss of all 58 souls on board made it the deadliest commercial airliner accident in American history up until that time. After nearly seventy (70) years, details are still sketchy, and official reports, while available, are much less detailed than today’s information.
What is known is that the aircraft was flying at approximately 3,500 feet over Lake Michigan supposedly eighteen (18) miles north-northwest of Benton Harbor, Michigan, when it disappeared from radar screens. After the flight was declared missing, an extensive search was commenced by the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard using sonar and dragging the bottom of Lake Michigan with trawlers, but to no avail. All that was found was
