Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2501 was a DC-4propliner operating its daily transcontinental service between New York City and Seattle when it disappearedon the night of June 23, 1950. The flight was carrying 55 passengers and three crew members; the loss of all 58 on board made it the deadliest commercial airliner accident in American history at the time. The aircraft was at approximately over Lake Michigan, NNW of Benton Harbor, Michigan when flight controllers lost radio contact with it soon after the pilot had requested a descent to. A widespread search was commenced including using sonar and dragging the bottom of Lake Michigan with trawlers, but to no avail. Considerable light debris, upholstery, and human body fragments were found floating on the surface, but divers were unable to locate the plane's wreckage. The disappearance was the deadliest aviation disaster since the Llandow air disaster earlier that year, which killed 80.
Cause
It is known that Flight 2501 was entering a squall line and turbulence, but since the plane's wreckage underwater was not found, the cause of the crash was never determined. There is output from a during the event. The incident was reported as follows:
Aftermath
The missing airliner is the subject of an annual search by Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates, a Michigan-based non-profit organization. The search effort began in 2004 as a joint venture between author and explorer Clive Cussler and the MSRA. Cussler ended his involvement in 2013, but sent his side scan sonar operator back to Michigan in 2015, 2016, and 2017 to follow some leads discovered by MSRA. In September 2008, MSRA affiliate Chriss Lyon, investigating the crash of Flight 2501, found an unmarked grave that contains the remains of some of the 58 victims. Valerie van Heest, MSRA co-director and author of the book Fatal Crossing, says human remains from the June 1950 crash into Lake Michigan washed ashore and were buried in a mass grave. She claims they were buried in a St. Joseph-area cemetery without the knowledge of the victims' families, and the grave was never marked. In a 2008 ceremony at the cemetery with 58 family members of Flight 2501, a large black granite marker, donated by Filbrandt Family Funeral Home, was placed in Riverview Cemetery that now lists the names of the 58 and the words "In Memory of Northwest Flight 2501, June 23, 1950. Gone but Never Forgotten." Another mass burial site was discovered in 2015 at Lakeview Cemetery in South Haven. The site had long been unmarked, until cemetery sexton Mary Ann Frazier and her mother, Beverly Smith, working on a genealogy project, found it. The women contacted van Heest and together they planned a memorial service before the 65th anniversary. Filbrandt organized the service, which was led by pastor Robert Linstrom. St. Joe Monument Works donated a marker for the gravesite; it was delivered to the cemetery a few days before the 65th anniversary of the crash. On Wednesday, June 24, 2015, a remembrance service was held at the grave site. South Haven Mayor Robert Burr, along with Craig Rich from the MSRA, read off all of the 58 victims' names. After each name was read, a bell was rung. The crash was featured on an episode of the Discovery Channel program Expedition Unknown, which aired on February 12, 2020.
