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Speaker 1: From my Heart Media. This is Missing in Alaska, the

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Speaker 1: story of two congressmen who vanished in nine two and

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Speaker 1: my quest to figure out what happened to them. I'm

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Speaker 1: your host, John Wallzac. Okay, So one of the most

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Speaker 1: important tasks I gave you was to help me track

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Speaker 1: down photos of the missing plane, a white and orange

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Speaker 1: Cessna three ten see tail number and one eight one

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Speaker 1: to h Because not only did the plane disappear, so

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Speaker 1: too did any photographic evidence of it. I had never

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Speaker 1: seen a photo of the plane, neither had anyone I interviewed.

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Speaker 1: That's why I asked for your help. I reported that

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Speaker 1: Don John's, the pilot, bought the plane around nineteen seventy

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Speaker 1: and then repainted it. Via registration records, I figured out

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Speaker 1: that specifically, he purchased it in April nineteen seventy two.

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Speaker 1: So any photos showing the plane with its final paint

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Speaker 1: scheme as it looked the day it disappeared would have

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Speaker 1: to have been taken during a six month span in

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy two. Finding such photos would allow us to

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Speaker 1: compare the missing planes tail to a description of tail

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Speaker 1: wreckage located by Bob Martinson, the fisherman in poor Dutchess

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Speaker 1: sometime around nineteen eighty. Then we could better determine whether

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Speaker 1: or not what Bob found belonged to the baggage Bogs

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Speaker 1: plane or another plane. Unfortunately, we are still looking for

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Speaker 1: those photos, the Holy Grail photos, but I do have

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Speaker 1: good news. With your help, we found other photos of

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Speaker 1: the plane to photos actually taken during the nineteen sixties.

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Speaker 1: These are the first known photos of the plane, the

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Speaker 1: only known photos of the plane, and even though they're

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Speaker 1: not the Holy Grail photos, they are important for history's sake.

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Speaker 1: About two months ago, we heard from a listener named

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Speaker 1: Brian Power, a pilot, aviation preservationist, and entrepreneur. At first,

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Speaker 1: even with his expertise, Brian couldn't find any photos of

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Speaker 1: the plane. Like me, He dug through old newspaper articles,

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Speaker 1: sess the ads, etcetera. Nothing, So Brian took a different approach.

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Speaker 1: Looking at the registration records, he saw that the plane

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Speaker 1: was based in Texas for about six and a half years,

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Speaker 1: from November nineteen sixty through March nineteen sixty seven. In fact,

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Speaker 1: it was based in a town that shares his name,

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Speaker 1: Brian Texas, which is right next to College Station and

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Speaker 1: Texas A and M University. At the time, fewer than

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Speaker 1: fifty thousand people lived in the area, so Brian the

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Speaker 1: pilot made an educated guess that the plane was stored

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Speaker 1: at a local airport, Easterwood Airport. He started combing through

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Speaker 1: Texas A and MS digitized archives looking for any photos

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Speaker 1: taken at Easterwood in the sixties, and he quickly found

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Speaker 1: two black and white images that appeared to show a

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Speaker 1: Cessna three tense at Easterwood. One was taken in nineteen

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Speaker 1: sixty one. The other is undated but also appears to

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Speaker 1: have been taken in the sixties. These two photos appear

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Speaker 1: to show the same plane, the same Cessna three tensee.

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Speaker 1: The question was whether or not they showed our plane,

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Speaker 1: and one eight one to h odds were that yes

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Speaker 1: they did. Because Cessna only produced two sixty three ten c's,

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Speaker 1: so the odds of a three ten c being photographed

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Speaker 1: twice at Easterwood in the sixties and not being our

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Speaker 1: plane were relatively low. But that wasn't enough. We needed

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Speaker 1: more evidence. Unfortunately, the plane's tail number is not visible

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Speaker 1: in either image, frustrating I know, so once again I

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Speaker 1: turned to two pilots whose help has been invaluable, Mike Travis,

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Speaker 1: and another man who prefers to remain anonymous. The three

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Speaker 1: of us combed through airworthiness records for our plane, looking

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Speaker 1: for unique features that could help determine whether or not

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Speaker 1: the Easterwood plane was indeed our plane, and the answer

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Speaker 1: is almost certainly yes, it is our plane. First off,

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Speaker 1: after seeing the eastern Wood images, we immediately knew that

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Speaker 1: we were looking at either assess the three ten b

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Speaker 1: C or early model D. These three models had straight tails.

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Speaker 1: Later models had angled tails swept tails. The Easterwood photos

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Speaker 1: show a three ten with a straight tail. With that,

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Speaker 1: we moved on to a list of optional equipment that

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Speaker 1: our plane the missing plane had, including one a rotating

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Speaker 1: beacon on top of the vertical stabilizer, to a taxi

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Speaker 1: light on the lower landing gear strut, and three a

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Speaker 1: dare I l S antenna on the nose. Both Easterwood

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Speaker 1: photos show a rotating beacon, one shows a taxi light,

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Speaker 1: and one might show a nose antenna. It's hard to tell.

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Speaker 1: So far, everything we saw indicated that the Easterwood plane

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Speaker 1: was our plane. Their critical evidence ended up being two

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Speaker 1: additional antennas. Initially, our plane had a Leer seventeen A,

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Speaker 1: which is shaped like a shark fin. But in November

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Speaker 1: nineteen sixty the Leer antenna was removed and replaced with

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Speaker 1: an A r C A DASH thirteen B which also

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Speaker 1: has a very distinct shape. And guess what. Both Easterwood

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Speaker 1: photos the Texas photos taken in the sixties show this antenna,

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Speaker 1: the A r C A DASH thirteen B. Furthermore, yet

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Speaker 1: another antenna and a r C A DASH fifteen which

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Speaker 1: basically looks like a metal rod bent at a ninety

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Speaker 1: degree angle, was also installed on our plane at a

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Speaker 1: particular spot on its airframe after it left the factory,

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Speaker 1: and in one of the Easterwood photos, the higher resolution photo,

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Speaker 1: you also see this antenna. So both photos located by

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Speaker 1: Brian Power show a Cessna three tensee located at Easterwood

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Speaker 1: Airport during the nineteen sixties with the right optional equipment

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Speaker 1: and the right antenna's installed at the right locations. This

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Speaker 1: is very strong evidence that the Easterwood plane is our

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Speaker 1: plane and one eight one to ah the plane that

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Speaker 1: later disappeared in Alaska while carrying Congressman Hail Bogs and

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Speaker 1: Nick Baggage. This is why I ask for your help,

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Speaker 1: because now m I A is a wee, not a me.

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Speaker 1: It's about what we can find, what we can accomplish.

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Speaker 1: We just found the first known photos of a famous

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Speaker 1: missing plane, the only known photos of the plane. So

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Speaker 1: keep digging. Who knows, maybe we'll find the holy Grail

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Speaker 1: photos photos of the plane taken between April and October

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Speaker 1: nineteen two. Heck, maybe we'll even find the plane itself.

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Speaker 1: And one last thing. One of these photos, the Easterwood photos,

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Speaker 1: appears to show a d ice boot on the plane's tail.

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Speaker 1: So it appears we found photographic evidence of what we

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Speaker 1: reported based on documents in episode eleven, tail end that

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Speaker 1: the missing plane did have icing equipment, equipment that for

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Speaker 1: some reason, the NTSB did not mention in its final

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Speaker 1: accident report, equipment that undermines the theory that the plane

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Speaker 1: was brought down by ice. Ben Boland is our executive producer.

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Speaker 1: Paul Deckett is our supervising producer, Chris Brown is our

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Speaker 1: assistant producer. Seth Nicholas Johnson is our producer. Sam T.

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Speaker 1: Garden is our research assistant, And I'm your host and

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Speaker 1: executive producer, John Wallzac. You can find me and the

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Speaker 1: photos on Twitter at at John wallzac j O n

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Speaker 1: w A L c z A K. This week I

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Speaker 1: have a fun task for you. I want you to

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Speaker 1: read a new book by John Billman called The Cold Vanish,

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Speaker 1: Seeking the Missing in North America's wild Lands. It's captivating,

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Speaker 1: a book of adventure and mystery written with empathy. I

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Speaker 1: read it in two days. It focuses on people who

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Speaker 1: disappear on public lands in wild places and a father's

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Speaker 1: hunt for his missing son. Again. It's called The Cold

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Speaker 1: Vanish Special. Thanks to Brian Power, Mike Travis, and the

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Speaker 1: Third Pilot who asked to remain anonymous. And thank you

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Speaker 1: to Cushing Me more Real Library and Archives at Texas

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Speaker 1: and m University Archives. Again y'all support them. Missing in

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Speaker 1: Alaska is a co production of iHeartMedia and Green Forwark

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Speaker 1: Media