1977 Airplane Crash in Yosemite

Discussion Topic

Return to Forum List

This thread has been locked

Messages 841 - 860 of total 2675 in this topic

<< First | < Previous | Show All | Next > | Last >>

Steve in Tahoe

Social climber

Lake Tahoe, NV

Jul 27, 2011 - 05:44pm PT

So there is more out there in the woods....color matches one of the pieces I saw by the lake last week.

rottingjohnny

Sport climber

mammoth lakes ca

Jul 27, 2011 - 10:31pm PT

Fattrad....LASD-Ret....? Does the Ret. stand for tard...?

Rick A

climber

Boulder, Colorado

Jul 27, 2011 - 11:02pm PT

Jack fell off the trail in the middle of the night on the way to rescue others. End of story.

The rest is paranoid speculation. Friend of mine was the next rescuer on the trail after Jack and never saw or heard anything.

The alternative to the simple explanation above is that the marijuana mafia were waiting at 3:00 am in the rain to ambush Jack and push him off the cliff. This is simply ludicrous.

Papillon Rendre

Social climber

Jul 27, 2011 - 11:42pm PT

ThaDood:

Back then, female managers were few and far between with MCA. I think Debbie Price was one of the few female managers.

In retrospect, your friend's wife could have managed the gift shop portion of the store. Arvin managed the grocery dept.

My loose lips comment had nothing to do with your post, but a general comment from those days. Everyone knew everything, or so it seemed.

But it was an interesting time to live in the Valley.

:)

Reilly

Mountain climber

The Other Monrovia- CA

Jul 28, 2011 - 12:54pm PT

A little entertaining a propos thread drift:

Flying high for the Sinaloa drug cartel

Times were good for Carlsbad pilot John Ward as he smuggled cocaine across the U.S. for Mexico's Sinaloa cartel. But the men at the other end -- they worried him.

By Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times
July 27, 2011, 10:44 a.m.

Third of four parts

John Charles Ward would take flight in the half-light before dawn, when he could race down the runway without headlights and ascend into the cloaking embrace of an overcast sky.

Soaring above the crowded California freeways in the single-engine aircraft, he'd relax, pour himself a whiskey and Seven and plan his hopscotch route to Pennsylvania. Inside the plane were 242 pounds of cocaine; outside, nothing but clouds.

"There are no curbs in the sky," Ward said. "There's no place for anybody to pull you over."

Flying shipments for the Sinaloa drug cartel was Ward's best gig in years. No street dealing, packaging or other grubby chores required. He delivered cocaine to a distributor in Pennsylvania and returned with duffel bags stuffed with up to $2.8 million, keeping a few 6-inch stacks of cash for himself.

Taking off from Riverside County's Corona Municipal Airport at dawn, Ward could be back the next day, feeding twenties and hundreds into the counting machine at his home in Carlsbad.

Still, he had some nagging concerns. The Mexican distributors in Pennsylvania were trying to cut costs by hiring immigrant truckers to haul drugs from Southern California. And U.S. agents were keeping a close watch on traffickers in the historic towns of Lancaster County, Pa., a distribution hub.

Ward was an expert at covering his tracks. He usually stayed at a cottage-style motel just off the runway at Smoketown Airport, the self-described "Gateway to Pennsylvania's Amish Country." After midnight he donned black clothing and lugged cocaine-filled gym bags from the plane to his room. He avoided people, paid cash for most purchases and, if anybody asked, said he was an aircraft broker.

"The money never stopped. The product never stopped," he said. "Everything was moving continuously."

..................................................................

rest of the article:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/cartel/la-me-cartel-20110727,0,6478850.story?page=1?lkjasdlkjlsad

Be sure and watch the video, it is pretty good. Dude was landing on The Racetrack
in Death Valley at night! He said something odd though about staying below
the March AFB radar. Huh? Maybe he meant Edwards and China Lk.

Oh, yeah, I liked where he says he would settle into cruise with the autopilot
on pour himself a Scotch, fire up a spliff, and watch porn on his laptop!

ps
There are 3 very good preceeding articles about the drug trade.

Hardman Knott

Gym climber

Muir Woods National Monument, Mill Valley, Ca

Jul 28, 2011 - 02:46pm PT

Wow, that's a great article!

Thanks for sharing...

Licky

Mountain climber

California

Topic Author's Reply - Jul 28, 2011 - 06:21pm PT

David D.: I just spoke to someone very familiar with the Howard 500. He said definitely that blue body part is from either the inboard side of the left or right engine. So, good find! The color also helps as the company that did the final paint job does not have any photos of their work after the plane left their facility.

middle joe

Trad climber

Aug 4, 2011 - 03:43pm PT

From Summit Post:
I know everything about this crash. The co pilot was my uncle. Contact me at drscott1970@aol.com

Licky

Mountain climber

California

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 4, 2011 - 06:04pm PT

Good story, but wrong crash

Brizane

Ice climber

California

Aug 5, 2011 - 01:54am PT

Yellowstone National Park is always unsafe? It has experienced a far higher than usual number of people killed. I read this here: Deadly year in national parks as Yosemite claims 14 lives . Accidents really happen either at a person's own risk or the environment itself.

Licky

Mountain climber

California

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 5, 2011 - 06:13am PT

Brizane...not too sure how your comments fit with this thread

Trango

Mountain climber

Livermore, CA

Sep 17, 2011 - 05:53pm PT

Looks like this thread needs another jump start.

Anything new to tell us about the book, Licky?

Licky

Mountain climber

California

Topic Author's Reply - Sep 17, 2011 - 11:18pm PT

A week ago this last Thursday, with the help of an old timer from WWII that knew the intimate details of the Pratt & Whitney R2800 radial engine, I finally figured out what caused the crash, ripped the wing off and landed the plane in the lake. Of course I'll save this for the book since I gotta have something for you guys to want to wait until the end of the book.

Reilly

Mountain climber

The Other Monrovia- CA

Sep 18, 2011 - 12:26am PT

Vegas and I already figgered they lost oil pressure in the prop guvnor and
threw a blade which ripped the engine and wing off. Next summer we're gonna
go recover the guvnor. Jerry Brown is gonna come along.

TWP

Trad climber

Mancos, CO

Sep 18, 2011 - 10:46am PT

Licky:

In 2005 I published a "true crime" book about an event that occurred in 1977. "Murder Unpunished: How the Aryan Brotherhood Murdered Waymond Small and Got Away With It." University of Arizona Press.

I thought I was slow!

Licky: You got me beat! You have researched this down to the lint-in-the pilot's-navel-and-the-smell-on-his-finger-when-he-twitched-and-sent-the-plane-into-a-fatal-tailspin. TMI for Christ's Sake. Publish already or shut up forever!

Licky

Mountain climber

California

Topic Author's Reply - Sep 18, 2011 - 02:19pm PT

Thorton (aka TWP):

You surprise me. First off as an attorney I would have thought you'd want a historical book to be fully researched and only facts provided that were substantiated. Maybe you just aren't that kind of attorney.

Secondly, the Tucson Weekly (September 15, 2005) seemed to give you good points for your writing style, but the following comment by Paul Wine who reviewed your book said: "This is certainly a complex case, and condensing the material into a book of this size leads to sketchiness. (Price too often makes off-handed references to people and events without providing elaboration.) "

Thirdly, your involvement as an attorney for the Florence 11 certainly gave you access to court documents which are primarily what you used to find the players and put together the meat and potatoes for the book. I've only had one person at a time to take me to the next. Many times I've been told by someone that they were present during this event only to prove that they not only weren't present, they were blowing smoke with their stories. I have documents from DEA, FBI, US Customs, FAA, NTSB, Justice Department, and the US Park Department. All of which required multiple FOIA requests from those agencies, not from a central location such as a court clerk. I have personally (at my own expense) traveled around the US interviewing many of those involved as many on this forum's thread will agree.

And your final sentence in your post pretty much says all about your skills as a lawyer.

Jan

Mountain climber

Okinawa, Japan

Sep 18, 2011 - 08:29pm PT

Licky-

You have my support! I have two anthropology books that I've been working on since the 1970's. Both are encyclopedic and both have been expanded many times. If a person does research for the love of it, getting into print for money or glory is not the issue.

I too have dilemmas about how much to write concerning touchy legal and political issues. In some cases it is better to wait a number of years before discussing them.

Enjoy what you're doing at your own speed. There are plenty of books both popular and academic, that could have profited from more time to think about the important issues.