Speaker 1: You're recording. We're on a boat. We're on the We're
Speaker 1: on a fifty ft boat in Prince William Sound, the
Speaker 1: Arctic Skimmer, and we are right next to Hinge and
Speaker 1: Brook Island. The cliffs are rising above. It's a beautiful
Speaker 1: sunny day and we're just about to turn into Poortn Edges.
Speaker 1: So the first time I've ever been on the sound
Speaker 1: and were an edges is where the tentster told me
Speaker 1: he pulled the cess tail of around. So it's it's
Speaker 1: really stunning right now. You can see, you know, distant
Speaker 1: mountains with snow. It's completely sunny, very few clouds, and
Speaker 1: they're just these like dramatic cliffs rising up from the water.
Speaker 1: From my heart, media, this is Missing in Alaska, the
Speaker 1: story of two congressmen who vanished in nineteen two and
Speaker 1: my quest to figure out what happened to them. I'm
Speaker 1: your host, John Wallzac. Our trip to Henchin Brook Island
Speaker 1: almost didn't happen. We just got lucky sun, blue sky,
Speaker 1: clear water, but only for about forty eight hours. We
Speaker 1: had a narrow window between storms and we seized it. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: our boat could only accommodate four people, two captains and
Speaker 1: two members of our team. So on October nineteen, I
Speaker 1: flew with Paul Decan, our supervising producer, from Anchorage to Cordova,
Speaker 1: a small fishing town on Prince William Sound. I've been
Speaker 1: to something like forty five out of fifty states, so
Speaker 1: I don't say this lightly. Cordova is one of the
Speaker 1: most beautiful towns in America. It's right on the water,
Speaker 1: ringed by snow capped mountains, reachable only by air or sea.
Speaker 1: It's most valuable commodity, Copper River salmon can fetch more
Speaker 1: than seventy dollars per pound. Anyway, when we landed, all
Speaker 1: I had was the name of our captain, Andy and
Speaker 1: his phone number. We had been so busy that the
Speaker 1: details of the search the logistics fell to Sam T. Garden,
Speaker 1: our research assistant in Atlanta. In the tiny terminal in Cordova,
Speaker 1: I called Andy across the room. A skinny man with
Speaker 1: a gray beard answered. We walked over, said high, then
Speaker 1: went outside and hopped in his truck. Andy and his
Speaker 1: wife see One run a company called Alaska Marine Response.
Speaker 1: They specialized in salvaging wreck ships and cleaning up oil spills.
Speaker 1: Andy went to Cornell, where he studied natural resources with
Speaker 1: the concentration and fisheries. He moved to Alaska about thirty
Speaker 1: years ago. On the way to the Marino where he
Speaker 1: docks his boats, and he asked for more details on
Speaker 1: why we wanted to go to Henshin Brook. He knew
Speaker 1: the basics that we were looking for a missing plane,
Speaker 1: but at my request, Sam hadn't told him much. We
Speaker 1: wanted to keep everything tight lipped. But and he is
Speaker 1: a pretty smart guy, and he figured out quickly which
Speaker 1: plane the baggage Bog's plane around nineteen eighty. I said,
Speaker 1: as we sped into town, a man named Bob Martinson.
Speaker 1: Andy stopped me. Bob, I know Bob Amazingly coincidentally, Yes, Andy,
Speaker 1: our captain knows Bob, the tipster who found the cess
Speaker 1: in the tail. And like everyone else with whom I spoke,
Speaker 1: he said, Bob's a good guy, a fisherman who spent
Speaker 1: decades in Cordova on and off, a photographer whose images
Speaker 1: hanging in a local restaurant. When we got to the
Speaker 1: marina and he took us to our boat, the Arctic Skimmer,
Speaker 1: I went downstairs for a minute, then above me the
Speaker 1: radio crackled with what sounded like a may day call.
Speaker 1: I ran back up, looked out a window and saw Paul,
Speaker 1: our producer, sprinting down the doctor Andy's truck to grab
Speaker 1: our recording equipment. It seemed that our trip would start
Speaker 1: with a rescue saw one needed help. A few minutes later,
Speaker 1: though Clarity, a boat was disabled and needed a toe,
Speaker 1: but nothing dramatic. Andy spoke with the coastguard, then dropped
Speaker 1: us off at his house, where we had the second
Speaker 1: floor overlooking the water to ourselves. The plan was to
Speaker 1: head out the next day, so Paul and I, with
Speaker 1: time to kill, went exploring down a hill onto a
Speaker 1: breaker jutting into the water. As the sun set, everything
Speaker 1: was still and silent but for the sound of sea
Speaker 1: otters splashing about and a few birds. We had dinner
Speaker 1: at the Reluctant Fisherman, where Bob Martinson's photos hang, some
Speaker 1: fitful sleep, Then the next morning we got up early,
Speaker 1: boarded our boat and met our other captain, Mark, who
Speaker 1: went to grad school at the University of Washington, where
Speaker 1: he studied Russian and Eastern languages before moving to Alaska.
Speaker 1: As we prepared to leave Arkin, Andy told us that
Speaker 1: the town was a buzz a thirty three year old
Speaker 1: hunter named Neil Durgo had vanished in the mountains right
Speaker 1: before we arrived. We're kind of surmising that he's hurt
Speaker 1: because he would have easionly meet it back on his own.
Speaker 1: So if he's heard up high, then he's been dealing
Speaker 1: with snow and super cold nights. He had, you know,
Speaker 1: he had a space bag in a tent, maybe some
Speaker 1: extra clothing or something. The search party is it being
Speaker 1: out of Cordova. We talked about Bob Martinson and assess
Speaker 1: in the tail he found. I know that the odds
Speaker 1: are like one in twenty million that we're gonna find
Speaker 1: this thing. But um, but Bob seems like a good
Speaker 1: guy and it's Bob Martin said, that's what he's talking about,
Speaker 1: the guy he's talking to. The Bobby's yeah, Mark knows it.
Speaker 1: I mean, you guys, we all know each other. Big dog,
Speaker 1: blond guy. I think he's a great grandfather or something
Speaker 1: already better. Oh yeah, so so that's I mean, that's
Speaker 1: why I took what he said seriously, because he seemed
Speaker 1: you know, I've talked other people too, and study he's
Speaker 1: a reliable guy, because you know, doing something like this
Speaker 1: get a lot of crazy people that come out of
Speaker 1: the woodwork. But UM, I thought this was interesting because
Speaker 1: he was he's reliable. Where he found it matches up
Speaker 1: with the roughly with the flight route of the missing plane.
Speaker 1: UM and the pilot Don Johns, didn't make radio contact
Speaker 1: at Johnstone Point and he was supposed to UM and
Speaker 1: he did right before he entered Portage Pass. So most
Speaker 1: people that I've talked to think that the plane went
Speaker 1: down into sound somewhere between um Cortobage and Pension Brooke. UM.
Speaker 1: And then you know, we were talking to Andy, and
Speaker 1: I talked to another guy in Anchorage the other day.
Speaker 1: There's this little strip of land UM near is a
Speaker 1: New Check Andy? Yeah. That the airstrip, the spot you
Speaker 1: land a plane if you're going to New Check. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And that little stripple land Can you tell me about that?
Speaker 1: It's just that it's it's just just a little strip
Speaker 1: of gravel that connects you know, a more substantial what
Speaker 1: would be an island if that was gone, UM where
Speaker 1: the town of New Check wasn't. That stripple land is
Speaker 1: um flat level, it's humped, but a nice uh smooth
Speaker 1: surface for a plane to land up. Andy pulled out
Speaker 1: a map and pinpointed the spot where Bob found the
Speaker 1: tail in poor dutches. Around the corner, there's a long,
Speaker 1: narrow strip of land used by bush pilots then and
Speaker 1: now as a rough airstrip. Typically you would only want
Speaker 1: to land single engine small planes on it. But in
Speaker 1: an emergency, it's possible that Don John's the pilot, could
Speaker 1: have tried to land here near what used to be
Speaker 1: the native village of New Check. Or he could have
Speaker 1: attempted a rough water landing adjacent to this strip and
Speaker 1: tried to swim to shore. Remember Don made several attempts
Speaker 1: to swim twenty three miles across the English Channel. He
Speaker 1: was fit and he was used to swimming in choppy water.
Speaker 1: And then I was I've talked to some pilots and
Speaker 1: who looked at the weather that day, and they said
Speaker 1: that the I think the wind was coming out of
Speaker 1: the southeast, and so he would have wanted if he
Speaker 1: was trying to do some kind of crash landing, he
Speaker 1: would have wanted to fly into the wind um. And
Speaker 1: the way that this little striple land is oriented is
Speaker 1: is facing southeast. If you were coming from Cortage Witterer. Um. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: So talking to Bob, like I said, it's been forty
Speaker 1: almost forty years he found this. Um, he was studied
Speaker 1: with his dad and uh, another man and or they're
Speaker 1: both dead. Um, but he's he said, I went back
Speaker 1: and reread this this morning. He said that the troopers
Speaker 1: in Cordova expressed the interest that it was related to
Speaker 1: the baggage plane. And you know, it's been forty years.
Speaker 1: But one of the things that we've talked about is
Speaker 1: whether or not he brought the tail piece in And
Speaker 1: he doesn't really remember. He knows he gave the numbers whatever,
Speaker 1: he might have written them down. Um. And when people
Speaker 1: are out fishing, what are the boats that come bring
Speaker 1: them supplies called it tenders? Tenders. Yeah, he told me
Speaker 1: they might have sent it back on a tender or
Speaker 1: that he doesn't really remember. Um. But he told me
Speaker 1: that there were at least four characters and there were
Speaker 1: six on the missing plane. And so the question is
Speaker 1: if there were four characters out of six on it,
Speaker 1: like you know, like you said, be a match too
Speaker 1: to like. So, I think this is the best lead
Speaker 1: as to the plane's location that I've ever heard, and
Speaker 1: it's probably the best lead in fifty years. We also
Speaker 1: discussed how Bob found the tail in the lead of
Speaker 1: his net. Sam and it liked to run along the beach.
Speaker 1: They don't always, but they like doing it. So the
Speaker 1: idea is to cut them off with the net the lead,
Speaker 1: you know, so that they'll go into the deeper part
Speaker 1: of the net, and and then you try to keep
Speaker 1: them in there, and then you curse, and then you
Speaker 1: recover your net and haul them at the very end.
Speaker 1: But yeah, the lead is normally the it is the
Speaker 1: shallow end of the net. What what would that indicate?
Speaker 1: Maybe that it was just the net was being Well,
Speaker 1: that's kind of a grabby thing. I mean, it drags
Speaker 1: up all kinds of stuff, you know, sometimes rocks, It
Speaker 1: hangs up un rocks a lot. Help Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of grabby easily. You know, you could grab
Speaker 1: it something down there that's point jagged whatever. I mean. Definitely,
Speaker 1: a a tail end of a plane is quite possibly.
Speaker 1: Don't I'm not surprised, you know. Yeah, what's interesting, I
Speaker 1: think I said this earlier. What's interesting is he found something.
Speaker 1: So it's it's like, even if it wasn't this particular plane,
Speaker 1: I wonder which one it was. Well, this is a
Speaker 1: kind of a uh pinpoints it kind of you know,
Speaker 1: we know where he found it. It's a not a
Speaker 1: big area. It's we know it's yes, and uh, it's
Speaker 1: indicating it's on the shallow you know, near the beach,
Speaker 1: the shallower area. So that's a kind of narrows it
Speaker 1: down quite a bit. I mean. And when I ask you, guys,
Speaker 1: so we obviously I know this is not the ideal
Speaker 1: time to do this, so we're very lucky we have
Speaker 1: beautiful weather today. Um, I imagine the ideal time would
Speaker 1: be spring and summer. Sometimes a better summers in general
Speaker 1: is better weather, but there's no guarantee ever, Um, you're
Speaker 1: feeling June you have the longest days, so you can
Speaker 1: make better use of weather windows and generally nicer weather.
Speaker 1: I mean, so if you were to pick one spot
Speaker 1: in the year, one month of the year, that would
Speaker 1: be ideal for doing stuff on the water. June is
Speaker 1: about as good as it gets, but it doesn't mean
Speaker 1: it can't blow data any given week. You know, this
Speaker 1: is a nice window. Actually, do you see the way
Speaker 1: this wind is coming. Once we go around that island
Speaker 1: will be in the league so we'll we'll be pretty
Speaker 1: sheltered in there, and then this helps knock down the
Speaker 1: swell that's out because otherwise you get wrap around swell
Speaker 1: in there, and that makes it tough getting stuff on
Speaker 1: and off the boat. If we're you know, doing that
Speaker 1: getting okay, how shallow can this boat get it? I mean,
Speaker 1: what is what would be like the minimum depth touch?
Speaker 1: We can touch? Really, it's an ice class all. It's
Speaker 1: built really thick. So it's made to beach so we
Speaker 1: can drive up, you know, a nice beach rock. You know,
Speaker 1: it's a nice, nice slope beach. We can drive up
Speaker 1: to it. So if you found the tail of assessma here,
Speaker 1: if if it didn't originate, if the plane hadn't crashed
Speaker 1: right in this area, do you have any idea where
Speaker 1: it would have been brought in from? Oh? If if
Speaker 1: that would be that would be tough. You know. The
Speaker 1: thing is that if I think of a tail of
Speaker 1: a if a plane brex, Let's say there's some possibility
Speaker 1: there there there could have been a bomb planet on
Speaker 1: the plane right where that it could have broke the
Speaker 1: plane of um. Most of the time when you load
Speaker 1: a plane, you load all the light things in the
Speaker 1: stern in the tail and including dry bags with your
Speaker 1: survival gear and stuff like that. So if the tail
Speaker 1: could have been ouyant for a long time and floated,
Speaker 1: so the plane could have crashed somewhere else and currents
Speaker 1: could have brought it in there. Or but a southeast
Speaker 1: wind like a wouldn't have that would have taken it
Speaker 1: elsewhere usually but um, but it might have gone out
Speaker 1: and then the weather changed and then point in. Um.
Speaker 1: But it's that's not a classic collection spot, like the
Speaker 1: currents don't. Like most of the stuff that happens out
Speaker 1: of the Gulf ends up on like Naked Island or
Speaker 1: over here, like they don't. It doesn't go in there.
Speaker 1: That's not um. It's like what it seemed to indicate
Speaker 1: to you then that whatever plane this was probably went
Speaker 1: down in that area, that it's a good bed, that
Speaker 1: it's the engines and the rest of it are too
Speaker 1: far away. But I could have drifted, you know. If
Speaker 1: there was a part of a plane that could drift,
Speaker 1: it would be the tail. A few hours later, we're
Speaker 1: on a boat. We're on the We're on a fifty
Speaker 1: ft boat and Prince William Sound the Arctic Skimmer and
Speaker 1: We are right next to Hinchinbrook Island. The cliffs are
Speaker 1: rising above. It's a beautiful sunny day and we're just
Speaker 1: about to turn into fourt edges and then there we
Speaker 1: were the exact spot, so that rock formation just right
Speaker 1: off there. The around nineteen man and two other men
Speaker 1: found assessment tail, so somewhere out here they were saneing fishing.
Speaker 1: As we idled, we took stock of our equipment. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: we did not have two very important tools side scan
Speaker 1: sonar and a magnetometer, which would have helped a lot.
Speaker 1: We couldn't get them in time. But we did have
Speaker 1: two r o v s, or remotely operated vehicles, small
Speaker 1: tethered submersibles with cameras. If you've seen Titanic, you know
Speaker 1: what they look like. They're used at the beginning of
Speaker 1: the movie to explore wreckage. One of ours belonged to Andy,
Speaker 1: the other to the Prince William Sound Science Center, which
Speaker 1: kindly lent it to us. Tell us about this r
Speaker 1: OV in particular, like what its capabilities or how de trekker. Um,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a high resolution camera. It's the highest
Speaker 1: resolution camera we have. Um, we're rigging it right now.
Speaker 1: Kind of like a controlled drop camera, so we can
Speaker 1: thrust and tip, but we're going to drag it with
Speaker 1: the boat just so we can cover more area than
Speaker 1: we could if we were stopped swimming around with it.
Speaker 1: We also had diving equipment and a crane just in
Speaker 1: case we found something interesting, Say the plane the r
Speaker 1: o V. So it's in the water. It's in the water.
Speaker 1: Um are we searching that way? Starts pointing the reel.
Speaker 1: But I didn't make a difference. I can to sure.
Speaker 1: Let's let's just let's have it go over at this
Speaker 1: side of the poem means the ploy said this one
Speaker 1: something like that at forty dollars. So this at that
Speaker 1: point right there, that's probably what we're looking at. And
Speaker 1: so around there this is that this rounded part and
Speaker 1: then that jagged rock area that is that's probably this
Speaker 1: And that's where he said he found the piece to
Speaker 1: be right over there around those rocks. Yeah, yep, right there,
Speaker 1: right where the r o V is now. On a screen,
Speaker 1: we watched as the r o V descended. We just
Speaker 1: had a jellyfish some one by the camera. Seymore jellyfish
Speaker 1: over the years, don't they proliferate when there's always been
Speaker 1: a lot of gels, but maybe a few more. A
Speaker 1: few years ago we had a really bad jellyfish season
Speaker 1: affected sang a couple of boats. They were so so
Speaker 1: thick about a couple of boats. They the sayners would
Speaker 1: catch so many jellies that they'd roll over like they couldn't.
Speaker 1: Their nets would pack up. They're trying to catch fish,
Speaker 1: and the gels block the the opening of the web,
Speaker 1: and then we just roll them right over, so the
Speaker 1: jelly can literally take a boat down. Are you good
Speaker 1: enough of them? So you can go down a little more? Mark,
Speaker 1: I can't yet see the bottom. Okay, I can see
Speaker 1: the bottom. Stop. Yeah, so let's we're seeing the bottom,
Speaker 1: which is a means visibility pretty good. Hasn't hasn't rained
Speaker 1: in a few days, which would money everything? Oh yeahs
Speaker 1: I don't think there's any well as all as cricks,
Speaker 1: but I don't think there's anything really big so unusual
Speaker 1: this time of the year to be able to see
Speaker 1: to the bottom, you know, the actually winner that is
Speaker 1: a higher better visibility because plankton is can be your
Speaker 1: biggest problem, and of course the cooler it is less
Speaker 1: likely they're blooming in the summer. But plankton is can
Speaker 1: really makes things soupy, you know. As Mark steered the
Speaker 1: r o V aiming its camera side to side, we
Speaker 1: stared at the green tinted screen, water, rocks, plants, fish.
Speaker 1: To minimize glare, we covered the screen with a black
Speaker 1: sheet and crawled underneath. Much better. We were just doing
Speaker 1: it tests above water. See this is uh there? Now
Speaker 1: I'll come back and show you this. You want to
Speaker 1: that's a sea outer hole. They come down dig and
Speaker 1: get clams and muscles and stuff. What do you need? Well,
Speaker 1: I'm just kind of curious. Should I come back? Um,
Speaker 1: maybe just turn off the down thruster and let's just
Speaker 1: see where it is. Are you using the propulsion or
Speaker 1: is the boat pulling it? The boats pulling it? I'm
Speaker 1: using its propulsion to aim it. Is it pretty simple
Speaker 1: to use or is it kind of trucky? Oh? It's
Speaker 1: it's it's kind of like a video game. You kind
Speaker 1: of get you know, once you figure out which fingers
Speaker 1: doing what, you know, you get better at over time.
Speaker 1: But since my excuse why fourteen year old can use
Speaker 1: it better than I could? Is it something that we
Speaker 1: could use for a minute or is it? Yea, I
Speaker 1: took control of the r o V. It is zippy.
Speaker 1: It's really surprising. You kind of sucking in to be slower,
Speaker 1: so you use the propulsion and obviously to aim it.
Speaker 1: But does does it kind of stabilize on its own
Speaker 1: if you just let go? Should be seen in the
Speaker 1: bottom conservac You said, where the claw? Where the claw here? Okay? Yes,
Speaker 1: this r o V also had a remote controlled claw.
Speaker 1: How would I telt to see the claw? More so
Speaker 1: this great same thing on the other side. I'm cool,
Speaker 1: you're looking down. H It's not super the clause and
Speaker 1: super quick, but it's quick enough. I don't know, it's
Speaker 1: not quick enough, not for fish so much. Let me
Speaker 1: stop for a minute and meditate on how bizarre all
Speaker 1: of this was, how surreal. Here I was off an
Speaker 1: island in Alaska, navigating an r o V as we
Speaker 1: searched underwater for a missing plane that carried to U. S. Congressmen.
Speaker 1: To be honest, I didn't quite think the answer to
Speaker 1: can we charter a boat and go search for the
Speaker 1: plane would be yes, this is a podcast, But the
Speaker 1: answer was yes, so yeah. Anyway, for hours we used
Speaker 1: the r o V s to search for wreckage. A
Speaker 1: lot of eel grass, but no plane. Later, a change
Speaker 1: of plans, we hopped into a zodiac craft, a small
Speaker 1: inflatable boat with a motor, and started zooming around, taking
Speaker 1: advantage of the ultra clear water to conduct a visual
Speaker 1: search looking to the floor below, because amazingly, yes, it
Speaker 1: was clear enough to see to the bottom, at least
Speaker 1: in shallow water. We also landed briefly on Hension Brook itself,
Speaker 1: so I wonder where they're um on the map there
Speaker 1: was some like inland water feature. I wonder where that is?
Speaker 1: Is that an otter's So we're standing on the shore
Speaker 1: of Henson Brook Island. We're kind of on the edge
Speaker 1: of the trees, and the sun is going down and
Speaker 1: we just rode up in a zodiac boat off the
Speaker 1: bigger boat. And so now we're gonna wander into the
Speaker 1: woods and hopefully not get eaten by bears or this
Speaker 1: is gonna kind of be Blair witchy when you find
Speaker 1: this this audio. We didn't have long on the island,
Speaker 1: but we planned to return back in the zodiac, escape
Speaker 1: from Pension Brook and back to the Arctic skimmer. Exhausted,
Speaker 1: we anchored for the night as the sun sank in
Speaker 1: the distance. We spotted something walking on the beach. How
Speaker 1: how far are we from shore? A couple hundred yards,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't maybe more from him, maybe undry
Speaker 1: yards from him. Him was a large brown bay air.
Speaker 1: Where do you go? Uh? Do you go behind a
Speaker 1: kind of rock or something? Now, so we've all the
Speaker 1: four of us have been tracking the bear with binoculars.
Speaker 1: I don't think he went into the bushes. He's just behind.
Speaker 1: So is this your first bear ever? Yeah? Well yeah,
Speaker 1: sounding like in a zoovia zoos don't count. Yes, this
Speaker 1: is this is my third. I saw one in North Carolina,
Speaker 1: on one in Washington State and the North Cascades and
Speaker 1: the street the third, but the first brown bear. It's
Speaker 1: an unusually colored one. Yeah, I got something. I was
Speaker 1: taking pictures through the binoculars. Yeah, so I was using
Speaker 1: what was unusual about the color. It had a blonde
Speaker 1: collar and then blonde ears and a lot darker brown coat.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, here you go. Yeah that was true the binoculars. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I was doing that kind up. Yeah. So, I
Speaker 1: mean it's a much better closer picture. Wow, I've never
Speaker 1: tried it. It's it's hard. You have to stay super stable.
Speaker 1: So I have to find it with my eyes and
Speaker 1: then hold my phone up, you know, in the perfect spot,
Speaker 1: and then try to quickly get some pictures. But I
Speaker 1: got video of it too. After a few minutes, the
Speaker 1: bear cross between two rock formations and disappeared. So the
Speaker 1: bears gone. Now for a minute, I want you to
Speaker 1: close your eyes. You're on a boat, vast body of water. Twilight.
Speaker 1: You see distant mountains backlit by a fading glow, cold wind. Calm.
Speaker 1: You're a tiny dot in a dark wild We are
Speaker 1: were anchored for the night in Poor Duchess, not far
Speaker 1: from where we were looking for the Thesessina tail with
Speaker 1: r o VS. And we're a few hundred feet off
Speaker 1: the beach. We just saw a brown bear walking on
Speaker 1: it for a while and we were all just tracking
Speaker 1: it with binoculars. And Mark's making dinner right now, stir
Speaker 1: fry downstairs, and we're all talking about the best way
Speaker 1: to eat moose and uh oh, what do you see
Speaker 1: something moving on the beach there? It's black? You sure
Speaker 1: the binoculars? Wait, okay, I lost it? Now what's it
Speaker 1: in the grass around the beach to us? So it's
Speaker 1: like it's like it's I can't see it now putting
Speaker 1: that little rocky that lighter rock color stuff. Anyway. Sorry, no,
Speaker 1: it's all good. And uh so we're in this. We're
Speaker 1: in Poor Duchess which is sheltered, and we're surrounded by
Speaker 1: all these rocky hills and yeah, I mean today we
Speaker 1: we went from Cordova on too Prince William Sound and
Speaker 1: all the way to Engine Brooke and into Poor Duchess
Speaker 1: and we used two r o vs to look for
Speaker 1: the plane. And um, then we we hopped in the
Speaker 1: zodiac and the water was so clear amazingly and that
Speaker 1: we just kind of did a visual search near the shoreline. Um,
Speaker 1: we didn't see anything, but we also landed on the
Speaker 1: beach and went into into the woods. But um, it's
Speaker 1: really serene and peaceful. There are two other boats in
Speaker 1: Poor Duchess right now other than us, but we're kind
Speaker 1: of far away from them. So we're just anchored down
Speaker 1: for the night with the sun going down, not too
Speaker 1: much light left, and he's I don't know what he
Speaker 1: needs to do it maybe talking about hope for tomorrow. Um,
Speaker 1: so tomorrow we're going to use the r o vs
Speaker 1: and areas that we didn't search to day and we're
Speaker 1: also hopefully gonna go out on the zodiac and see
Speaker 1: if the water is still super clear, if we can
Speaker 1: cover more ground when the light is better, when the
Speaker 1: sun is right above us. So we did it kind
Speaker 1: of late in the day today and we we're close
Speaker 1: to shore. But um, but yeah, So, I mean, we
Speaker 1: found the exact spot that was pinpointed to us where
Speaker 1: the cess and the tail was pulled up, and we've
Speaker 1: been just using the RV sook around that area. Um,
Speaker 1: we're concentrated in a very specific spot in poort Edges.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm excited for dinner. It's getting colder. It
Speaker 1: was actually really nice today. It was it was sunny
Speaker 1: and it was warm at points an hour on the
Speaker 1: front of the boat looking at the beach where the
Speaker 1: bear was a few minutes ago. And it's freezing cold
Speaker 1: and we're hungry. That night after dinner below deck as
Speaker 1: we fell asleep, this is what we heard. H h
Speaker 1: h h h m hm m hm hm hm m.
Speaker 1: So today's day two of our search and another beautiful
Speaker 1: day's sunny. We just had breakfast and uh Andy has
Speaker 1: binoculars and it's piloting the boat. Mark is on the
Speaker 1: roof of the boat. We heard his voice and we
Speaker 1: didn't know where he was, but he's on the roof
Speaker 1: and we're gonna take advantage of the sunlight and the
Speaker 1: low tide and the clear water to go to the
Speaker 1: area where the tail was pulled up and see if
Speaker 1: we can see anything visually and then also used the
Speaker 1: r o v S again um to cover ground that
Speaker 1: we didn't cover yesterday. So for a while that's what
Speaker 1: we did R o v S a visual search. But
Speaker 1: other than eel, grass and fish again, nothing well, we
Speaker 1: did spot something. Yeah, So we're we're right off the
Speaker 1: coast of henteron Brook Island and we're we see some
Speaker 1: rusted out wreckage on the beach. We're not really sure
Speaker 1: what it is. It looks maybe like it's part of
Speaker 1: a boat. Andy suggested we head to shore. So John
Speaker 1: at looking at that steel debris on the beach. It's
Speaker 1: and thinking of the number of storms that have happened
Speaker 1: in the last fifty years and pushed up up. Being
Speaker 1: that the plane was aluminum and it could have had
Speaker 1: there's a good chance that looking at the beach line
Speaker 1: along this point, if there was something out here, it
Speaker 1: could have got pushed up there. We're seeing a lot
Speaker 1: of steel things that got pushed up there. It's a
Speaker 1: lot heavier in debtsort than aluminum. So it's it's interesting.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's interesting to think. I mean, at least
Speaker 1: part of it could have watched up onto the shore.
Speaker 1: Maybe not the engines. Why I keep watching it, but
Speaker 1: there's an engine. I keep watching the line with the binoculars,
Speaker 1: and I keep you know, every Yeah, there's another piece
Speaker 1: of metal in there, and I can see where just
Speaker 1: straight in from us under the sea. It's not a
Speaker 1: big piece. But we have we have these uh Andy
Speaker 1: has these image stabilized expensive binoculars which are really nice
Speaker 1: because we can see pretty far. And you know, usually
Speaker 1: the binoculars are shaking, but you press this button and
Speaker 1: it stabilizes it. So's it's helpful. Mark and Andy Prepp
Speaker 1: the zodiac. We have a radio. We have air horn
Speaker 1: and flares. Che tim if you can see a bear
Speaker 1: coming towards us. We all getting in the boat. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we climbed in and took off. Yeah. Clear when you
Speaker 1: get close. So the wreckage, the metal that we saw
Speaker 1: is further down shore. You yea, when you do anything.
Speaker 1: We're trying to get a little bit of shelter from
Speaker 1: this shop. You probably fine, did you guys get out? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And you can just specting that guy. You got some
Speaker 1: rocks here, you're gonna be able to pop and go
Speaker 1: if you want to go flos if your feet your
Speaker 1: let me go. Ye rocks the lines. So did you
Speaker 1: get out? M I'm sure, so's Andy? You like you
Speaker 1: can leave him on too. I think it's gonna lead
Speaker 1: mine on for now. Yeah. They're worm Yeah, it's kind
Speaker 1: of just while I'm moving it on the wipe ust.
Speaker 1: We combed our way down the beach for a minute.
Speaker 1: I disappeared into the woods. John, Yeah, where are you?
Speaker 1: I'm on the bear drow okay, okay. As we picked
Speaker 1: up debris, steel would bong. We looked closely for pieces
Speaker 1: of aluminum. The missing plane was made mostly of aluminum ore.
Speaker 1: Coming up on more steel again, not a not a
Speaker 1: fifty five young drum. You've heard of? An old boat?
Speaker 1: Paul and I kept showing Andy anything that seemed remotely interesting.
Speaker 1: So you're want to just pick up this piece of
Speaker 1: hose here off the beach which we're looking at. It's
Speaker 1: got some steel reinforcing and a braided core. Doesn't look
Speaker 1: typically marine. It definitely looks like an expensive construction, kind
Speaker 1: of shielded like it could be possibly aircraft. We don't
Speaker 1: see any numbers or what makes you say that it's
Speaker 1: not marine. How can you just just because of the
Speaker 1: um you have a you have a lot of room
Speaker 1: and marine compared to aircraft. So you would be able
Speaker 1: to instead of buying a hose that would be this
Speaker 1: expensive to construct, you would run it away from you know,
Speaker 1: that had to get close to heat or some reason.
Speaker 1: They had that shielded hose. I think it's worth saving. Sure.
Speaker 1: Did you see about the MH three seventy guy, the
Speaker 1: guy who would go around and uh like the Maldives
Speaker 1: and he went hunting for pieces of the plane and
Speaker 1: he actually found a few. There's the article in the
Speaker 1: Atlantic about it recently. So this is copper wire. It's
Speaker 1: all rolled up like it was a part of storage.
Speaker 1: It was amazing what Andy could tell from even the
Speaker 1: smallest piece of debris by the type of wood or
Speaker 1: nail or metal, or how something was constructed. He could
Speaker 1: say this is from a boat, or this is pre
Speaker 1: nineteen and then here's our shipwreck, and it must be
Speaker 1: past two o'clock huh. I think it is because the
Speaker 1: tide looks like it's going down. Ye Oh, it was
Speaker 1: old seeing this boat up close. You're telling me anymore
Speaker 1: about it? No, it's interesting because it looks like careful.
Speaker 1: Like I said, the nails could be sticking up. So
Speaker 1: we're seeing these deck planks and a little bit of
Speaker 1: the blue right back there on different to a well.
Speaker 1: And you can see here the blue and in the
Speaker 1: square nails and that deck plank. I'd picked up back
Speaker 1: there and thought this this where is this a tank?
Speaker 1: Guess this is a tank? And where's the rest of
Speaker 1: the whole? Like is this and is that fish tote
Speaker 1: part of it? I see there's a plastic coat and
Speaker 1: classic where nails. Would they tell you that it's older?
Speaker 1: They do? They do, except for pretty much Johnny Wooden
Speaker 1: construction is older. After combing through the wreckage for a bit,
Speaker 1: we moved on and kept looking for clues. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: found us another piece of illuminum. You know what, it's
Speaker 1: stainless steel in stayle steel. I guess is it's a sink,
Speaker 1: the kitchen sink. You found a sink. It's stainless I
Speaker 1: thought it? Do you guys? See John? Yeah? Right, are
Speaker 1: I'm pointing there's something white. I think it's a rock,
Speaker 1: but I can't really point. Okay, it's like rounded, I think,
Speaker 1: is it a rock, I'm going he's going no, it's
Speaker 1: I think he's classic. Okay. In addition to a literal
Speaker 1: kitchen sink, we found a checker piece, a child's flip flop,
Speaker 1: a car bumper, dead jellyfish, the carcass of an eagle,
Speaker 1: and a ton of garbage. And I mean a ton
Speaker 1: of garbage. We've essentially turned the earth into a rotating landfill,
Speaker 1: trash and plastic everywhere, even here on this otherwise pristine island.
Speaker 1: The sheer amount of trash made our job hard, so
Speaker 1: much crap to sift through, but sit through it we did.
Speaker 1: You know what kind of reminds me of Phoebe Cooper,
Speaker 1: because that one kid digging on a beach found some
Speaker 1: of the money. And it's just like that kid happened
Speaker 1: to be digging at the right spot at the right
Speaker 1: time and found a clue. And so you know, we're
Speaker 1: sitting here like coming through shift wreckage and and garbage,
Speaker 1: and you know one piece could be an answer. Then
Speaker 1: for the first time, a piece of aluminum that wasn't
Speaker 1: a can castings, but that's definitely a casting luminum casting
Speaker 1: rubber hose. What is that's in the shape of it.
Speaker 1: It sort of looks like a bell housing it Scott.
Speaker 1: This would have been the the finished edge probably why
Speaker 1: it was quated. It would probably against something steel and
Speaker 1: then it would come around and I had another machine
Speaker 1: off the back of the engine. It would just been
Speaker 1: like a cover or that um they flywheel would have
Speaker 1: sat in. We kept it and moved one found a
Speaker 1: small strip of metal back there O that there stainless steel.
Speaker 1: It looks like it was part of a clamp. But
Speaker 1: what would be my guess, probably from a boat probably,
Speaker 1: I mean standless clamps are used um to hold hoses, boats, airplanes,
Speaker 1: all kinds of mechanical I mean, to really find something
Speaker 1: that we could identify as part of the plane, what
Speaker 1: would it take, I mean other than the tail number
Speaker 1: or serio like that cowing you know that would turned
Speaker 1: out to be Honda. They have a uh Cessna will
Speaker 1: have a definite um right on the front. That's a
Speaker 1: Usually it's a plastic piece that's I mean that would
Speaker 1: be like a smoking gun. UM. Any any of the
Speaker 1: chunks of a plane aluminum like that are riveted and
Speaker 1: have a lot of different things. So if we can
Speaker 1: found a chunk of wing, we would know that it
Speaker 1: was airplane related, and then we could look back and
Speaker 1: see by people that really know airplanes better, what type
Speaker 1: of airplane was this um, and then maybe get closer
Speaker 1: to the idea of could it be the one that's
Speaker 1: a beautiful old piece of wood? There? Searching in a
Speaker 1: creek nearby, I found a lead patch, probably from a
Speaker 1: boat that sank. Again, if people will say, would would
Speaker 1: chunk of an airplane wash ashore made of aluminum? This
Speaker 1: is made of lead, It washed ashore, or you found
Speaker 1: it up the creek from the high tide, so um,
Speaker 1: Definitely things get pushed up. I think this was a
Speaker 1: good idea. I mean, you know, given the situation, we
Speaker 1: probably have a better chance of finding I think the
Speaker 1: playing on the shore. I think so. And we're able
Speaker 1: to search so thoroughly, you know, looking at the rocks
Speaker 1: where the eel grass that was one thing. The the
Speaker 1: r o vs quickly became tangled in the ear eel
Speaker 1: glass gel grass. The the thrusters um and see it's
Speaker 1: good we have you alonggo because you can identify off this.
Speaker 1: I won't really, you know, barring something blatantly obvious like
Speaker 1: a waning in one. Yeah, I still put these on
Speaker 1: um places where we you know, we look at Okay,
Speaker 1: that doesn't necessarily need to be repaired, but we'd like
Speaker 1: to protect it. So far, so far, coming to beach,
Speaker 1: we've only found one piece of non can aluminum. Yea,
Speaker 1: that pizza that we found back there, right that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was a cast piece of a Liminum too. We're
Speaker 1: fairly starting that would not be from an airplane. Um,
Speaker 1: the the engine parts could be cast. There could be
Speaker 1: parts that are bolted to the engine that are cast. Um,
Speaker 1: it wasn't it wasn't necessarily a shape that would preclude
Speaker 1: it from being from an airplane. Might as well take
Speaker 1: it back with us. We can take it back somebody
Speaker 1: that might that's an expert. No more about. But um,
Speaker 1: we're used in a lot of marine engines as well.
Speaker 1: Aluminum cast like that. So the the plane. If the
Speaker 1: plane is sitting somewhere under the water here, or if
Speaker 1: it's broken into pieces, you think it's still be whatever's
Speaker 1: left of it was still being pretty good shape. Liminium
Speaker 1: doest pretty well in this climate underwater. Um, so it
Speaker 1: could be covered with marine growth. But yeah, I think
Speaker 1: it it could be. H what's it been over fifty years? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it could be. I mean, especially if it's for whatever
Speaker 1: reason it's entombed in mud. I mean, it might be
Speaker 1: preserved pretty well. We're able to find it. I just
Speaker 1: kept having this image with the R O V yesterday
Speaker 1: of the tail and seeing that, seeing the number pop up.
Speaker 1: But and we don't know if it We're not sure
Speaker 1: if the tail was pulled up and delivered to the
Speaker 1: tender to take the court over, or just the numbers
Speaker 1: were transferred. Right. That was a little bit of a
Speaker 1: Bob could really remember that. And I wonder, Um, I
Speaker 1: mean the number might have been in more than one place.
Speaker 1: I mean that the main you know, would have been
Speaker 1: in one prominent place. But we probably battling right now, boy,
Speaker 1: losing daylight. We doubled back, so we're about to get
Speaker 1: on the part of the beach directly opposite from where
Speaker 1: Bob found the tail. M h m hm. Sure, looking
Speaker 1: for like a message carbon the cliff Bogs is here.
Speaker 1: As the tide rose, we reached the massive rock formation
Speaker 1: jutting into the water blocking us uh but yeah, is
Speaker 1: there a way around that side? Uh? Well, I could
Speaker 1: hop up on here, but I just don't know how
Speaker 1: steepid is on the other side. It's manage the ball.
Speaker 1: You might want to go down to Paul, Say, what
Speaker 1: where are you at? I'm on the other side now
Speaker 1: I'm behind you. Oh okay, yeah you, I mean you
Speaker 1: you can go too that. You have to get on
Speaker 1: your knees and crawls. Do you want me to grab
Speaker 1: Anya you might want? Yeah? Can you just hold that?
Speaker 1: So Paul is crawling almost on his stomach under a
Speaker 1: big rock formation and he's through. You know, I know
Speaker 1: it's unlikely, but when you do something like that, I
Speaker 1: just can't help but imagine this thing collapsing. Well, I
Speaker 1: was waiting until I was waiting until you got out.
Speaker 1: So now how do we go? It looks like you
Speaker 1: did get shimmy down the side. Okay, and like that,
Speaker 1: our time on the island ran out. Your Mark, you're
Speaker 1: still on there? Uh in the galley is waiting? Well?
Speaker 1: You in my world famous spaghetti dinner. All right, Well
Speaker 1: we walked up an appetite, were turned around, and we're
Speaker 1: headed your way. So we'll see in a little bit.
Speaker 1: Mark picked us up in the zodiac. You like the
Speaker 1: assorted oh stuff that I'm bringing back. We found a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff, but this is the stuff we weren't
Speaker 1: quite sure about. Oh wow, wow, man, it's so pretty
Speaker 1: getting water over the side. Change my socks when I
Speaker 1: got back or suck only got one water walk flood. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we found a lot from that one shipwreck whatever. It
Speaker 1: was pretty cool. Old boat. I don't know, wouldn't beams
Speaker 1: and planks, kind of square nails, definitely a little construction. Yeah,
Speaker 1: scare nails anymore. Climbing up a ladder onto the Arctic skimmer,
Speaker 1: I set down the debris I kept, including the piece
Speaker 1: of cast aluminum, and I changed my sock for dinner
Speaker 1: mark spaghetti. Then it was time to leave. Andy navigated
Speaker 1: us out of Poor Duchess, but before he got too
Speaker 1: far I asked him to stop for a minute. So
Speaker 1: we're just off the coast of Pension Brook, but specifically
Speaker 1: New Check and there's a really narrow strip of land
Speaker 1: and we've talked to some pilots who say that this
Speaker 1: is a good place to land a plane and they
Speaker 1: use it actually now to land plane small planes. Um,
Speaker 1: it's like a very long narrow strip of lands rocky
Speaker 1: um sandy um, you know, and it's surrounded, it's rained
Speaker 1: by the east. These mountains these really tall maybe get
Speaker 1: more than like a thousand feet hide really high. Um.
Speaker 1: But so if we run on the hypothesis that the
Speaker 1: tailpiece that was found in Port Duchess belongs to the
Speaker 1: plane we're looking for, trying to figure out, well, you
Speaker 1: have this perfect landing strip, why would you have gone
Speaker 1: around the corner into and ended up in Port Chess.
Speaker 1: I mean maybe a few explanations. The plane could have
Speaker 1: gone down around here and the tailpiece got dragged around
Speaker 1: the corner. Um. Maybe the visibility was really bad and
Speaker 1: don was the pilot was trying to turn around to
Speaker 1: come back and land in this spot. UM. I mean,
Speaker 1: there are different explanations. But it's really weird to see
Speaker 1: this in person. I've seen this on Google Maps so
Speaker 1: many times that you know, to be here with these
Speaker 1: thousand foot tall mountains and this rugged, beautiful water. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so we're about to head back to Cordova
Speaker 1: and we're leaving Pinsinbrook behind, and if we come back
Speaker 1: here with more equipment, we would love to search this
Speaker 1: area off this um long landing strip. How do I feel?
Speaker 1: How do I feel? I mean, honestly, I feel good.
Speaker 1: I feel. Why am I asking myself how I feel? I? Uh,
Speaker 1: I feel like this trip was worth it because I
Speaker 1: got a really good understanding of the geography of the area,
Speaker 1: um of this strip of land that I've seen on
Speaker 1: a map but I've never seen in person, of how
Speaker 1: tall the mountains are, of what port edges looks like.
Speaker 1: And when we went to the spot that um Bob
Speaker 1: told us he found the cess in the tail, we
Speaker 1: got a much better idea of where he would have
Speaker 1: set his nets and where he could theoretically have pulled
Speaker 1: up the tailpiece, and you can kind of narrow it
Speaker 1: down to this very specific area. And uh Andy and
Speaker 1: Mark helped us with that. So if we were to
Speaker 1: come back here with a magnetometer with side scanning sonar,
Speaker 1: we have some really good specific points in areas that
Speaker 1: we could search. And then for several hours as we
Speaker 1: zip back a break, no searching, no interviews, just time
Speaker 1: to think and try not to puke, because the return trip,
Speaker 1: for me at least, was rough. I don't usually get
Speaker 1: sick on boats, but for whatever reason that day I
Speaker 1: did nausea aside. I stepped out of the cabin onto
Speaker 1: the deck multiple times, wearing a life vest, gripping rails,
Speaker 1: watching islands and mountains vanished behind us, bathed by a
Speaker 1: striking sunset, fiery reds and oranges giving away to cool
Speaker 1: blues and paints. As darkness fell, we pulled into Cordova.
Speaker 1: Now there's something I need to tell you, something I
Speaker 1: haven't told you. The day before, while we were on
Speaker 1: the water, out of cell range, or so we thought,
Speaker 1: Andy's phone buzzed once. It was a text with bad news.
Speaker 1: That day at exactly one pm, about ninety minutes after
Speaker 1: we got to Poor Dutch's, an Army National Guard unit
Speaker 1: in the mountains near Cordova found the body of Neil Durko,
Speaker 1: the thirty three year old hunter who disappeared right before
Speaker 1: we got to town. Durko fell down a steep shoot
Speaker 1: and died. Because such as Alaska, a place where so
Speaker 1: many fine meaning and others die young, where sometimes amateurs
Speaker 1: survive and experts don't, where hunters are found and congressmen aren't.
Speaker 1: Next time on missing in Alaska this week for your
Speaker 1: task something fun. Google Alaska shore Zone. Shore Zone is
Speaker 1: a free interactive mapping system that, among other things, allows
Speaker 1: you to explore seventy thousand miles of shoreline in Alaska.
Speaker 1: Click on a spot and you can see photos, videos, etcetera.
Speaker 1: Go zoom around, visit tension Brooke, who knows maybe you'll
Speaker 1: spot something interesting. You can reach us by phone at
Speaker 1: one eight three three M I A tips that's one
Speaker 1: eight three three say four to eight four seven seven
Speaker 1: again one eight three three six four to eight four
Speaker 1: seven seven, or you can reach us via email at
Speaker 1: tips at iHeart media dot com. That's tips, T I
Speaker 1: P S at iHeart media dot com. Ben Bollen is
Speaker 1: our executive producer. Paul Decan is our supervising producer, Chris
Speaker 1: Brown is our assistant producer, Seth Nicholas Johnson is our producer.
Speaker 1: Sam T. Garden is our research assistant. And I'm your
Speaker 1: host and executive producer, John Wallsack. You can find me
Speaker 1: on Twitter at at John wallzac j O n W
Speaker 1: A l c z A K. Special thanks to our
Speaker 1: captains Andy and Mark, and to Bob Martinson. A big
Speaker 1: thank you also to the Prince William Sound Science Center
Speaker 1: and specifically Scott Pega. Their website is p w S
Speaker 1: sc dot org. If you can go donate there are
Speaker 1: a great nonprofit. Finally, when this wretched pandemic passes, please
Speaker 1: visit Cordova. You won't regret it. Trust me for now, though,
Speaker 1: support the fisherman. If you can afford it, try some
Speaker 1: Copper River salmon. People say it's the best salmon in
Speaker 1: the world. Missing in Alaska is a co production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Media and Greenford Media.