FROZEN IN TIME
THE WINDS ABOVE THE DARK ALASKA COASTLINE WERE TWICE AS STRONG AS FORECAST WHEN CAPTAIN KENNETH DUVALL REPORTED HIS DOUGLAS C-124A GLOBEMASTER II’S POSITION OVER MIDDLETON ISLAND JUST BEFORE 8 P.M. ON SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1952.
The Military Air Transport Service (MATS) flew this route daily, ferrying personnel and cargo between McChord Air Force Base near Tacoma, Wash., and Elmendorf AFB on the northern outskirts of Anchorage. The flight path through the rugged cliffs of the glacier-carved Chugach mountain range left little room for error in a region with spotty radio navigation coverage. With less than an hour to Elmendorf remaining, the 37-year-old pilot continued at the standard altitude of 9,000 feet, apparently unaware he was veering off course.
Created in 1949 as a modification of the C-74 with greater volume, clamshell doors and a collapsible upper deck to allow for simultaneous carriage of passengers and cargo, the C-124 was at the time the U.S. military’s largest heavy transport aircraft. In addition to 11 crew members, on this flight—call sign MATS 1107—41 passengers occupied the long rows of canvas jump seats lining the lower deck. Colonel Eugene Smith was due to launch Alaska film actress Penny Singleton, was preparing to retire as the Alaskan Army’s chief dental surgeon and open Anchorage’s first private orthodontist practice. Army Private Leonard Kittle was returning to duty after attending his daughter’s birth in Kansas. In a phone call to his wife before boarding, he had lamented the lousy weather anticipated for the flight. After all, there had been seven military transport crashes already in November 1952.
