Lost gold shipment West Africa 1946

Hello All

Here is example of a treasure story with an almost imposable chance of recovery. Interesting all the same.

In 1946 a gold shipment on a Dc 3 flying from Monrovia Liberia to Accra Ghana disappeared. there was a massive ground sea and air search for this missing aircraft. However due to the times and no knowledge of where the aircraft with 15 passengers went down, finding out where the place crashed on its 700 mile journey is looking for the proverbial needle in a hay stack.

Speculations range from a crash site some where in the jungle clad mountains in southern Liberia or north western Ghana. The British Army in such a large area to search finally gave up on finding the air craft with its gold shipment.

To this day there has never been any evidence of any parts of the aircraft turning up, passengers or any of the gold. It is as if the plane flew into oblivion.

Perhaps one day some lucky discoverer will find the wreckage on some remote mountain jungle?

But for now it is one of those unsolvable mysteries. 

Good hunting

Hardluck 

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Hello Xavier

Not sure exactly if they flew along the coast or over the mountains. If I were to guess, I suspect there was two options for the pilot. One was to follow the coast which would of been longer or a more direct flight over the mountains which would of been shorter. Back in 1946 flight plan protocols would of been very primitive and perhaps the decision on which route taken was dictated by the pilot on his knowledge of existing weather conditions at the time.

You could be right about the natives may have already found the plane. Perhaps there are hundreds of pots and pans still being used made from the DC-3 aircraft parts all over west Africa 

And the gold is perhaps long gone. 

However your guess is as good as anyone's.

Hardluck 

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Hello Xavier

Here is some more information about weather conditions.

Ghana Weather and Climate

Since Ghana is only a few degrees north of the equator, the only seasonal changes are distinct wet and dry seasons. The best time to visit is during the December-February dry season, when day temperatures are in the 80s-90s F/27-36 C and nights in the 70s F/18-26 C. (Another dry season occurs in July and August, but it's hotter.) The worst time to visit is April-June, when it's the rainiest.

A dry northeast wind known as the Harmattan blows almost continuously in January and February. The eastern coastal belt is warm and comparatively dry, the southwest corner has the highest humidity and rainfall, while the north is frequently hot and dry.

The date of the Newspaper article was June 4th 1946. Form this we could possibly assume the plane crash was some time time in the months before June, perhaps April June wet season.

Poor viability due to heavy rain could of led to the crash. Perhaps you could find off your friends in Ghana if there are still stories told about this missing DC-3?

You never know you might find out some interesting information about the story?

Hardluck 

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Hello Xavier

It is not impossible that the aircraft was downed by lightning.

But I would be very surprised if it did. I know the DC-3 pretty well. They are a very reliable old crates that can take a lot of punishment. Their survivability is legendary. There is a story of one DC-3 shot up by zeros off Guam in W2, The zeros ran out of ammo and the DC-3 limped home with nearly half a wing missing one landing gear wheel, part of the tail missing and half of crew and passenger dead or wounded. There is no better testament to an aircraft that was designed and built in the 1930's and still be used today in some parts of the world.

For my own experience living in PNG at a time, The old DC-3 was for a time many years ago the only plane available for transport. They were patched up with sticky tape, bailing wire and hail Marys.

But there was no more reassuring sound of the two distinctive radial piston engines of a old DC-3 transport plane coming to rescue you. On some remote highland airstrip little more than
grass and dirt. During a local uprising with the natives in full tribal battle mode at one end of the airstrip. 

As you can imagine I have a soft spot for the old birds.

Back to the crash I suspect pilot error in poor flying conditions. It would be interesting to see the British ministry of defense still has any records of crash.

You might be able to discover more if you can get records of weather condition such as wind speed of day of the flight in 1946? And details of fuel capacity and weight of the aircraft. It is possible that they may of needed a fuel stop depending on load weight ratio and depending if they were flying into a head wind?

It would be interesting to locate all airstrips in post w2 west Africa between Monrovia and Accra? And any information you friends could find in Ghana would be invaluable.

All of this may need to be considered to calculate a possible location to search. Even then a lot of luck will go a long way.

I hope this has been of interest.

Hardluck 

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Hello Goldigger 1950

In answer to your question: Not that I am aware of. I have not heard of any attempt to search for it since the land sea search of 1946. Back then any equipment would of been very crude and basic compared with today's standard.

This treasure story in some respects is one of those stories that has been lost to history. The Country that the DC-3 flew from Liberia has self destructed by civil war and many archival records were lost. The party who dispatched the gold may not exist anymore as far as we know. And the country that it was to arrive was part of old colonial British administration now defunct, in which is now independent country of Ghana.

I searched through American newspapers and found no mention of it. Except the newspaper article as shown.

One of those little mysteries to tease the brain.   

Hardluck 

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