Lost gold shipment West Africa 1946

Lets see 17 people with an undisclosed amount of gold    hmmmm undisclosed amount/17= were rich...How far can a full tank of gas take them?

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Hello All

Thank you all for the interesting posts.

Interesting theory, but if these men had stolen the gold and abandoned the plane some where. Surely Some of them being American would of eventually turned up back in United states. Another thing it would of been hard for any of them to sell gold in the United States as it was still under anti gold hoarding laws that was still in place from the great depression.

That said it was not impossible that they sold the gold elsewhere and returned back there with money. However all forms of international transportation was still under military control in 1946.

I am still inclined to think that there may of been all an accident either off the coast or in the mountains possibly near cape Palmer. But from the weather report there seemed nothing really severe enough to bring down a Dakota. They were a very reliable aircraft. However not immune to mechanical failure or human error.

The mystery remains.

Hardluck 

 

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Hello Xavier

I tend to agree with your assumption that the plane may of went down between Liberia  and Cape Palmas.

It is an interesting point you make about the Dakota. We could speculate one of men could have been taking home a grenade as a souvenir and had a catastrophic detonation which would of given them no time to use the radio. Or they flew through a cloud into a peak would of had the same result?

Another question we should ask our self is did Dakotas have Audio Radio's fitted or Morse code radio fitted to transport Dakotas in 1946? I read somewhere that fighter planes had voice communication equipment and many transport aircraft still carried a Morse code operator. Depending on operator time taken to get a message in Catastrophic emergency, could be a factor why no message got out?

It is interesting idea you have about flying to Morocco as it has twigged my poor memory about another incident very similar to this event.

I have did through my files.

Hardluck 

Ok hello all again

Here is two stories from 1951 of another aircraft missing in the area with 40 passengers and crew on board. Is there a connection? Two aircraft missing 5 years apart, is there a freak weather condition responsible for the disappearances?

Both aircraft was lost around the month of June. Both were unable to send a distress call. Both aircraft flew through the tropical convergence zone around a month of severe lightning and thunderstorm activity.

Some thing else to think about.

Hardluck 

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Hello All

Xavier thank you for the picture of the Dakota Radio.I am afraid I am not knowledgeable of that radio unit in question.

 From the picture I am not sure if can be used for voice radio communication,or Morse code transmitter or both?

I am still not sure if the transport aircraft was fitted with voice radio communication or relied on a Morse code transmitter. It appears that there was a progression of technology as the war progressed. But even after the war ex bombers converted to civilian airliners still had specialist radio operators still using Morse code transmitters.

There is a case in South America in 1947 A British Airliner, a Bomber converted into a Passenger Aircraft. Just before the aircraft crashed in the Andes there was frantic Morse code message? It seems the Morse code system was still used in the 1940's as the preferred method of long range air to ground communication.

The point I was trying to make out that if they had to tap out Morse code only. They may not have had enough time to radio a distress signal before they crashed?

Perhaps some of our historic aircraft enthusiasts can enlighten us on the technology available on the day?

Hardluck 

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Hello Xavier

Well Done with your research and your link.

Give your self a pat on the back for me.

I have been searching everywhere all I found was this Site of a bewildering array of WW2 Radio transmitters etc...

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with no luck.

The site you found is fantastic as it confirms long range communication was still by Morse code.

Now going back to the Tropical conversion zone, the Dakota has a service ceiling of over 23000 feet. In the 1940's there was little knowledge of the phenomenon of Jetstream and Hadley cells.

Jet streams are fast flowing, narrow air currents found in the atmospheres of some planets. The main jet streams are located near the tropopause, the transition between the troposphere (where temperature decreases with height) and the stratosphere (where temperature increases with height).

The major jet streams on Earth are westerly winds (flowing west to east). Their paths typically have a meandering shape; jet streams may start, stop, split into two or more parts, combine into one stream, or flow in various directions including the opposite direction of most of the jet. The strongest jet streams are the polar jets, at around 7?12 km (23,000?39,000 ft) above sea level, and the higher and somewhat weaker subtropical jets at around 10?16 km (33,000?52,000 ft).

The northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere each have both a polar jet and a subtropical jet. The northern hemisphere polar jet flows over the middle to northern latitudes of North America, Europe, and Asia and their intervening oceans, while the southern hemisphere polar jet mostly circles Antarctica all year round.

Jet streams are caused by a combination of a planet's rotation on its axis and atmospheric heating (by solar radiation and, on some planets other than Earth, internal heat). The Coriolis effect describes how a planet's surface and atmosphere rotate fastest relative to each other at the planet's equator while virtually not rotating at all at the poles.

While this speed difference generally has very little effect on a planet's surface, it plays an important role in atmospheric air currents because air at higher levels of the atmosphere, especially near the equator, must travel very fast to keep up with the planet's rotation. Thus there is a tendency for air at higher levels of the atmosphere to "slip" and fall behind the speed of the air below.

This results in a pressure buildup behind the "slipped" air, and so some air will have to catch up by moving in the same general direction as the planet's rotation (west to east on Earth); however, this air does not follow a simple pattern but instead is also influenced by its temperature and water content compared to that of surrounding air regions. In essence, instead of the atmosphere moving along with the planet consistently, parts of the atmosphere travel faster than others via jet streams.

Jet streams form near boundaries of adjacent air masses with significant differences in temperature, such as the polar region and the warmer air towards the equator.

Meteorologists use the location of some of the jet streams as an aid in weather forecasting. The main commercial relevance of the jet streams is in air travel, as flight time can be dramatically affected by either flying with the flow or against the flow of a jet stream. Clear-air turbulence, a potential hazard to aircraft, often is found in a jet stream's vicinity.

A second factor which contributes to jet sharpness is more appropriate for the subtropical jet, which forms at the poleward limit of the tropical Hadley cell. The subtropical jet forms at the poleward limit of the tropical Hadley cell and to first order this circulation is symmetric with respect to longitude.

Tropical air rises to the tropopause, mainly because of thunderstorm systems in the intertropical convergence zone, and moves poleward before sinking; this is the Hadley circulation. As it does so it tends to conserve angular momentum, since friction is slight above the ground. In the northern hemisphere motions are deflected to the right by the Coriolis force, which for poleward (northward) moving air implies an increased eastward component of the winds. Around 30 degrees from the equator the jet wind speeds have become strong enough that were the jet to extend further polewards the increased winds speed would be unstable..

Both Aircraft flew in a critical month June when temperatures change and wind directions of intertropical convergence zone cold air and hot air collide.  An aircraft entering a Hadley cell could hit a severe up  draft on one side and a catastrophic down draft on the other. Hadley cell can be a few kilometers wide. So the pilot may of corrected the updraft and lowered the altitude of the aircraft only to hit a violent downdraft on the other side of the cell with Catastrophic results. Strange enough there has been several cases of modern Boeing aircraft casualties to this phenomenon.

This could be a possible explanation of what happened in 1946 and in 1951?

If we look at two possibilities if the aircraft went over sea. They were not sighted by personnel at cape Palmer And the extra fuel consumption to weight ratio as it is more of an indirect route.

If the Aircraft tried to fly over the storm cell and a 30 degree crosswind in a more direct route over and over the Putu range then it could be possible that the aircraft hit that mountain range in a rain storm and severe down draft?

Just a theory but the location of crash sites are still a proverbial needle in a haystack in such a jungle clad location.

Hardluck. 

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