The Biggest Unsolved Mystery in Every State: Alaska

The Disappearance of Hale Boggs’ Plane

By Ironfield Publishing

Alaska is a vast wilderness where aircraft can disappear among mountains, glaciers, and forests with few traces left behind. One of the state's most enduring mysteries involves a plane carrying two prominent American politicians.

On October 16, 1972, a small Cessna 310 departed Anchorage for Juneau. Aboard were U.S. House Majority Leader Hale Boggs of Louisiana, Alaska Congressman Nick Begich, pilot Don Jonz, and Begich aide Russell Brown.

They never arrived.

A Massive Search Begins

When the aircraft failed to reach Juneau, authorities launched an enormous search. Military aircraft, Coast Guard vessels, Civil Air Patrol crews, and private pilots combed thousands of square miles of rugged Alaskan terrain.

Despite the scale of the effort, searchers found no confirmed wreckage, bodies, or debris from the aircraft.

After weeks of searching, the official effort ended.

All four men were eventually declared dead.

What Happened?

The most straightforward explanation is also perhaps the most frightening: the plane crashed somewhere in Alaska's unforgiving wilderness and simply hasn't been found.

The flight would have crossed terrain where severe weather, mountains, snow, water, and remote wilderness could make locating a wreck extremely difficult.

But the identities of the passengers helped fuel decades of speculation.

Boggs had been a member of the Warren Commission investigating President John F. Kennedy's assassination and had later expressed concerns related to the investigation. His political prominence helped inspire conspiracy theories suggesting that the disappearance might have involved something more sinister.

No credible evidence, however, has established that the aircraft was deliberately brought down.

A Mystery Frozen in Time

More than half a century later, the central questions remain unanswered.

Where is the plane?

What caused it to disappear?

And why has virtually nothing been found?

Perhaps somewhere in Alaska's immense wilderness rests a wreckage site that could finally explain what happened on that October day.

Until it's discovered, the disappearance of Hale Boggs, Nick Begich, Don Jonz, and Russell Brown remains one of Alaska's most haunting unsolved mysteries.

Next Stop: Arizona.

Ironfield Publishing — The Biggest Unsolved Mystery in Every State

Ironfield Library