Plane Crash Mystery!
"Romance of the Skies" Plane Crash Haunts Pair 50 Years Later
By Kevin Fagin-SFChronicle
Somewhere below the ocean waves, probably about 2,000 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge and 15,000 feet deep, lies a pile of cold metal that may yield answers to a mystery that has agonized two men for most of their lives.
That pile is the wreckage of the Romance of the Skies, a Pan Am luxury airliner that left San Francisco International Airport 50 years ago this week en route to Hawaii - and vanished.
Investigators eventually found a handful of bodies and a few bits of wreckage floating a hundred miles north of the flight path - but nobody has ever figured out why the plane crashed, exactly where it crashed, or even whether all 44 people who were booked for the flight were actually on board that day.
What the disappearance left behind is a whodunit worthy of Agatha Christie, only real.
It involves two suspected onboard bombers, the possibility that the propeller assembly was so bad it shattered, and a missing flight tape recording - which, if found, could be processed through modern machinery to finally reveal what manner of chaos was going on in those final moments before death.
Did fire bring down the Romance? Mechanical malfunction? Sabotage by bomb or poison gas? All are possibilities.
The questions haunt Ken Fortenberry, 56, and Gregg Herken, 60. They are determined to never rest until they get answers.
It's personal.
more...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/11/04/MNRHT5IIV.DTL
By Kevin Fagin-SFChronicle
Somewhere below the ocean waves, probably about 2,000 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge and 15,000 feet deep, lies a pile of cold metal that may yield answers to a mystery that has agonized two men for most of their lives.
That pile is the wreckage of the Romance of the Skies, a Pan Am luxury airliner that left San Francisco International Airport 50 years ago this week en route to Hawaii - and vanished.
Investigators eventually found a handful of bodies and a few bits of wreckage floating a hundred miles north of the flight path - but nobody has ever figured out why the plane crashed, exactly where it crashed, or even whether all 44 people who were booked for the flight were actually on board that day.
What the disappearance left behind is a whodunit worthy of Agatha Christie, only real.
It involves two suspected onboard bombers, the possibility that the propeller assembly was so bad it shattered, and a missing flight tape recording - which, if found, could be processed through modern machinery to finally reveal what manner of chaos was going on in those final moments before death.
Did fire bring down the Romance? Mechanical malfunction? Sabotage by bomb or poison gas? All are possibilities.
The questions haunt Ken Fortenberry, 56, and Gregg Herken, 60. They are determined to never rest until they get answers.
It's personal.
more...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/11/04/MNRHT5IIV.DTL
posted by VerityINK at 3:52 PM
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5 Comments:
I read the link to this story. Fascinating!
Donal, or anyone, if you find out more about this story, please, post it.
The plane went down in such an deep expanse of ocean, even if they found it, I don't know if it could be reached. I hope that these two men can locate the debris that was found.
So many questions in life...and so many are unanswerable. Life is fragile, handle with prayer.
tmw
Very interesting story. Thanks DONAL.
Morgan
phandancer
Easily the most compelling story that I have read in a couple of weeks. I always read the SFGate site...not sure how I missed this little gem.
Thank you for posting this cool little mystery...if only we could get the Mystery Machine and those meddling kids involved.
Everyone have a cool week.
Peace,
Stephen
Well, thank you, Phan--Stephen and how nice to see you here! I thought it was a great story, too. Took me forever to find a pic of the plane, but it was fun looking for it!
Morgan--glad you liked it!
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