SO MUCH OF our lives are routine. Whether it is brushing our teeth daily or doing our job. But things can take a sudden turn for the worse.
March 2, 1957, was a routine day for Alaska Airlines. Flight 101 originated from Seattle and arrived in Fairbanks, Alaska, at 7:17 am. The aircraft was a DC-4. It was a beautiful day over Puget Sound and the Gulf of Alaska.
The flight crew reported some minor discrepancies in their equipment; these were corrected during the turnaround inspection. The DC-4 was ready for the return flight to Seattle.
The crew assigned to Flight 100 was Captain Lawrence Currie, Copilot Lyle Edwards, and Stewardess Elizabeth Goods. They made routine preparations and filed routine flight papers.
Alaska 100 was a DC-4 to depart on an instrument flight plan to Seattle. The flight was calculated to take 7 hours and 44 minutes. The aircraft was loaded with 2,380 gallons of fuel.
At 9:40 am the crew and two passengers, Constance Reppert and Leroy Kelley, boarded the aircraft. It was a beautiful day, and the flight departed Fairbanks at 9:58 am.
The DC-4 had a seating capacity of 42 passengers. I can well imagine the feeling of good fortune felt by the crew and passengers. The pilot and copilot had a light load. The passengers had a choice of most any seat they wanted. The stewardess had only two passengers to serve. How would you feel if you were on a flight like that? Would that be your lucky day?
The flight proceeded at 12,000 feet until they were over Haines, Alaska. After 2½ hours the pilot canceled the instrument flight plan and continued under visual flight rules. It appears Pilot Currie reduced altitude, which would be far more scenic for the passengers.
Over Patricia Bay, B.C., the flight was sited at an altitude of approximately 3,000 feet. Patricia Bay is next to the Victoria, B.C. airport.
At 5:17 p.m., Flight 100 radioed Seattle stating, “Dungeness at 16 VFR estimating Seattle at 34.” This was the last contact, 7 hour and 19 minutes into the flight. Currie was on the radio, so Edwards may have been at the controls.
On March 2, 1957, Flight 100 crashed into Blyn Hill. The impact was at 1,500-foot elevation. Blyn Hill is approximately 2,100 feet high.
The crash site was not located until the next day by a Coast Guard helicopter. Lt. W. R. Goldhammer, the helicopter pilot, said the DC-4 clipped the treetops then hit flat. In addition, he said that pieces of the DC-4 broke off as it ground to a stop. There was also evidence of a cabin fire. It took another two days before officials could reach the site.
The sickening part of this story is that when they reached the site vandals had already stolen instruments from the copilot’s panel. Overlook the dead bodies. Let’s get some souvenirs while we can.
Clallam County Sheriff Robert Zweifel put an announcement in the newspaper stating the Civil Aeronautics Board wanted to examine every piece of the plane. The Sheriff said their names would be tagged on each piece and they could have them back after the investigation (Good luck with that).
We do not know why the flight was so low. It would certainly be more scenic for the passengers. The accident investigators considered it possible that when the pilots saw Sequim Bay, they thought it was Discovery Bay, where they would have easily cleared the hills.
Incidents like this led the FAA to require all airlines to fly under instrument rules.
It is always a tragedy seeing young lives lost so suddenly. Relatively speaking, we can be thankful that there were only two passengers, rather than 42. But it is no less a tragedy.
Looking at history like this can become very sterile. Dates, time, number of souls lost, etc. Who were these people?
Passenger Constance Reppert: Reppert was only 24 years old. She worked as the Recreational Director at the Army’s anti-aircraft sites near Fairbanks. She was starting a three-week vacation as a birthday surprise for her mother who lived in Elkins, W.V.
Passenger Lee Roy Kelley: Kelley was only 38 years old. He was a carpenter at Ladd Airforce Base. He, too was on a trip to see his mother, who was ill. His mother lived in Texas. Lee married Ada Aleana Bradford on August 18, 1947. Fresno, Calif., was Lee’s home town.
Stewardess Elizabeth Gail Goods: Goods began her employment with Alaska Airlines on Nov. 1, 1956. She completed her training on Nov. 30, 1956, and was assigned to flight duty. The crash occurred at the start of her fourth month of service.
Goods was born in Roblin, Manitoba. Her remains were shipped back to Dauphin, Manitoba for her funeral.
Copilot Lyle Edwards: Edwards was 39 years old. He was born in Casey County, Ky. He attended the University of Indiana. Edwards was a captain in the Army Air Corps during World War II. Part of that time he was an officer in cold-weather testing operations in Alaska. Edwards had lived in Seattle for about ten years and had worked for Alaska Airline for about nine years. Edwards had approximately 12,000 hours of flying time. He was survived by his wife, Olive, a son, Evan, and a daughter, Christie.
Pilot Lawrence Currie: Currie was 41 years old. He was born in Portland, Ore. Currie had flown for Alaska Airlines for about ten years. Currie had over 10,800 hours of flying time.
Among other aircraft, Currie flew a C-54 Skymaster “Tramp of the Skies” from Brisbane, Australia to Auckland, New Zealand. Those flights covered 2,800-mile round trip. He also flew between Darwin, Australia, and Shanghai, China. That flight was 3,100 mile each way.
As an Alaska Airlines pilot, he was a major participant in “Magic Carpet” flights from June 1949 to September 1950. This airlift transported thousands of Yemenite Jews to Israel. Currie was one of those pilots
The impact of events upon people directly, and impacts felt by friends and family are part of our collective experience.
Most days are routine. Some days are not. We should always remember that human history is not simply a catalog of events.
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John McNutt is a descendant of Clallam County pioneers and treasurer of the North Olympic History Center Board of Directors. He can be reached at woodrowsilly@gmail.com.
John’s Clallam history column appears the first Saturday of every month.