Sunday, November 17, 2019

The Plane Crash on Mount Charleston


Sixty-four years ago today, a plane crashed at Mt. Charleston.


If you were outside in today’s beautiful sunshine, it’s hard to picture the snow storm that was raging around Mt. Charleston on this date decades ago.

On November 17, 1955, a C-54 military cargo plane traveling from Burbank to Area 51 went off course, hit that terrible storm, and ultimately crashed into Mt. Charleston about a half a mile from the peak. All 14 men aboard were killed.

No one, not even the families of the deceased, knew the details of the flight or why the men were on the plane until after the details were declassified in 1998 – although if one persistent man hadn’t been tenaciously pursuing information about the crash, those details still might have been lost, ignored as insignificant and forgotten again.

For decades the remnants of the plane littered the area around the trail to the peak of Mt. Charleston. One of the most distinctive pieces left was a propeller, twisted and gnarled. I saw it when my hubby and I made the peak in 1996, and we, like everyone else, simply knew a plane had crashed there.

Today the propeller is part of a memorial to the men of USAF Flight 9068, which is next to the Silent Heroes of the Cold War memorial for those who served during those years. According the Forest Service’s fact sheet, it’s the only national memorial to the Cold War era of its kind.



Not until I visited the memorial with my husband, who is himself a Cold War veteran, did I learn the whole story of the crash. I picked up a copy of “Silent Heroes of the Cold War Declassified” by Kyril D. Plaskon in the gift shop and learned the true story behind the flight. 

The book starts out with a thorough background of the Nevada Test Site, where the infamous Area 51 is located, and its role in atomic testing as well as the development of the U2 spy plane. The flight from Burbank to Area 51 was a regular flight taking people who were working on the U2 back and forth on a daily basis.

On the day USAF Flight 9068 took off from Burbank, the flight was a little late taking off because the pilot waited to see if one of the regular passengers would show up (he had overslept, which was a lucky thing for him). At a little after 7 a.m., the very secret flight departed for Area 51. The flight took a route through the mountains and according to the book, near Goodsprings it went radio silent, flying without contact with the flight tower as it made its way toward the Test Site.

Unfortunately, a storm was approaching and they were blown off course to the east. The pilot was flying by sight, but the storm clouds made that difficult. The disoriented crew soon realized they were in trouble. In the book, Plaskon describes the crew “...dodging peaks just above the trees and snow covered mountain range when their normal flight path should have taken them over flat desert.”

At 8:19 a.m., the plane slammed into the side of Mount Charleston, killing everyone aboard.

Plaskon’s book describes the harrowing recovery mission undertaken, which ultimately involved the Sheriff’s Mounted Posse, which was the Search and Rescue of its day. A team that included Sheriff Butch Leypoldt led 17 horses to the crash site to bring the bodies back down, a gruesome chore carried out in the midst of terrible storm conditions.

The entire incident might have gone unremembered had it not been for Steve Ririe.

Ririe had seen the crash site and became interested in knowing more about it... then the crash site seems to have become interested in him, so to speak. The book recounts Ririe’s slightly paranormal experiences, all of which led him – some might say compelled him – to pursue the story of the crash. The story he uncovered is the reason there’s a memorial now to commemorate the men who lost their lives.

The Cold War had no battles to feature on the nightly news. It was, however, a pivotal time in world history when the entire world was holding its breath in the hopes of averting a disaster, a time of secrets and spies that still holds mysteries like Flight 9068.

The U2 spy plane was considered vital to our country’s efforts to prevail in the quiet fight that was happening, and the men who died that morning on Mt. Charleston were instrumental in its development.

The next time you’re at Mt. Charleston, take a moment to stop at the memorial. Ponder the propeller, preserved as it was found at a little over 11,000 feet. We almost didn’t get to hear the whole story of that flight and the men aboard it. 

They deserve remembering.


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All photos by Terrisa Meeks