Unsolved mystery: Location of Flight 2501 that disappeared over Lake Michigan eludes searchers 63 years later
Ursula Zerilli | 
SOUTH HAVEN, MI - Valerie van Heest believes she has unraveled the 63-year-old mystery of Northwest Airlines Flight 2501. However, the location of the aircraft remains unknown.NWA Flight 2501 was considered the worst aviation crash of its time and as one of the greatest tragedies of the Great Lakes. All 58 people aboard the flight on June 23, 1950 were lost when the plane went down over Lake Michigan. Aircraft debris and other evidence were found along the Lake Michigan shore near South Haven in the days following the accident.Over the years, searchers have attempted to locate the plane at the bottom of the lake, to no avail. But van Heest, director of the Michigan Shipwreck Research Association, said families of victims need not wait to learn what happened that night when 34-year-old Capt. Robert Lind decided to fly the plane into a dangerous storm that other pilots avoided.Van Heest is the author a non-fiction book called "Fatal Crossing: The Mysterious Disappearance of NWA Flight 2501 and The Quest for Answers," that will be released this month by Holland-based publisher In Depth Editions.Using 10 years of research, she recreates the last hours of the flight and connects a series of bad decisions and unfortunate events leading to the crash."The answers we've been looking for on the bottom of Lake Michigan are really hidden in the memories of people," said van Heest, of Holland. "I've interviewed 50 of the 58 victims' families and that's been my job: to unlock their memories."The Michigan Shipwreck Research Association, and the National Underwater and Marine Agency, a non-profit organization founded by the famous mystery author Clive Cussler, decided in 2003 to look into the crash. The original government investigation never determined a cause for why the flight went down.Van Heest, who finished writing her book this year, said despite their efforts to locate the aircraft "there's a possibility we'll never find the plane."The 2013 expedition came with no new leads. In fact, their challenge seems to grow as they exhaust high-probability search zones."I'm a bit concerned about this one," said Ralph Wilbanks, 65, an expert in sonar technology who has worked for Cussler for more than 20 years. "Most of the time when we do a search, you are getting closer to it by eliminating places it could be. But with Flight 2501, every time we search an area, we increase the potential for it to be somewhere else. I don't know if we're narrowing this one down."Van Heest said she has determined why the Douglas DC-4 went down, thanks to interviews with victim families, witnesses, airline officials and 10 years of researching the aviation industry, flight and weather conditions and more.She identifies several factors that led to the deadly accident, the first being the violent storm. She said the flight advisory system was not working and that the pilot was denied clearance to descend 1,000 feet, which van Heest suspects was an attempt to fly below turbulent rain clouds.Van Heest said the only question that remains is the location of the wreck."I have most of the answers. I know what happened and I know why it happened. I just don't know where it happened," she said. "The biggest decision on the part of the pilot is the attempt to cross the lake in this storm. I interviewed his family and the pilot was motivated to cross while others
did not."Noting that the detail is in the book, van Heest declined to identify the pilot's motivation during an interview with MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette.The sirens never soundedThe 55 passengers  -  27 women, 22 men and six children  -  boarded the plane at LaGuardia Airport in New York City. The plane, en route to Minneapolis with a final destination in Seattle, was last recorded near Benton Harbor just after midnight, according to the pilot's last correspondence with air traffic control.Jackie Eldred, 80, of Grand Junction, was among the people van Heest interviewed for the book.In an interview with MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette, Eldred said she remembers waking to the roar of a struggling plane. Eldred, who had long feared falling planes after one crashed in a field near her childhood home, said she became frantic, waking her toddler and husband."It sounded like a plane came over our house and it went away and it came back again," said Eldred, who was 17 at the time of the crash. "It was lower and louder every time. I woke my husband up and all of the sudden there was a big bang and I screamed."She said the bang jolted their South Haven home, located a quarter of a mile from shore. Eldred said she waited to hear the sirens of responding ambulances, but they never came.Her husband, Muryl, hushed her to sleep, assuring her she only heard the storm outside. But when Muryl heard about a plane crash in Wisconsin on the radio the next day, he knew what they heard the night before and that "they aren't looking in the right place," Jackie said.Initial search efforts in Lake Michigan launched from Milwaukee following the accident but were soon moved to South Haven after debris and Northwest Airline blankets were located 10 miles offshore, according to a website van Heest created to honor the victims.Aircraft parts, luggage, and human remains were retrieved in Lake Michigan off the coasts from South Haven down to Benton Harbor.Eldred said her own family members found body parts on the beach the next day after rumors had spread that evidence was washing ashore. Police closed off the beach shortly after her family brought remains to authorities, she said."There's been a lot of mystique around this," van Heest
said. "Some articles say it was the work of aliens and it just disappeared. The
fact of the matter is there was 7,000 pounds of debris picked up a week after
the accident, which speaks to the horrific circumstances of the crash."The search continuesAfter 10 years of hunting, the efforts of NUMA and the shipwreck association have not been fruitless.The crews have explored more than 600 square miles of lake floor, discovering nine shipwrecks, some dating back to the 1830s, in Lake Michigan. By tracking cemetery records, MSRA was also able to locate an unmarked grave of victim remains in Riverview Cemetery in St. Josesph.Every year in April, NUMA returns to West Michigan for a few weeks when water conditions are most suitable for sonar technology and MSRA just finished their search this week.Wilbanks, the sonar operator, said it's not uncommon for a search of this kind to last a decade, but it seems this plane is simply not where they expected. There is little information about the last radio call and searchers are not certain which direction the plane was moving when it went down. Overall, the search area could cover 1,000 square miles.Reports from the 1950 investigation contain information about divers who describe the bottom of a high-probability area as soupy and mucky."We have seen a number old shipwrecks; one year they are
exposed and the next they are not," van Heest said. "The bottom is loose like quicksand, so now there's one thing running through our minds: Could the bottom conditions hide the plane in the muck?"For the familiesVan Heest said the last decade of her life has largely been devoted to learning about the passengers inside the plane, whose families moved on after the plane went down. Her book is now available online, at Barnes & Noble and through the publisher's website.Carol Anderson, a religion professor at Kalamazoo College, said the untimely and curious death of her grandfather, NWA Flight 2501 passenger Dr. Leslie Anderson, was a fact she learned to accept growing up. Anderson's father was 18 when the crash happened and dealt with the loss long ago, she said. "My father doesn't think they'll ever find anything," Anderson said. "He thinks the plane exploded due to lightening and that's why they found fragments. It was so long ago that the emotions have faded. This book probably would have meant something to my late grandmother, but it's been 63 years now."Other victim family members are still looking for answers, van Heest said, which is why she is releasing the book before they find the plane."I've come to realize this is still raw for them," van Heest said. "They are still looking for answers and I've tried to do that in my book to put the death of their love ones in perspective."Eldred said she would like proof of what she heard that night so long ago. She and her husband have been interviewed several times, met victim families and have lived with the mystery of the crash for most of their lives."No one really believed me and I still want to prove that I heard what I said I heard," Eldred said. "It's all been a big secret. I knew the plane went down and I'd like proof that it went down in South Haven."Contact Ursula Zerilli at  or follow her on twitter.