In the summer of 1937 A Russian plane en route from Moscow to Fairbanks crashed in the Arctic. A headline that day in the Anchorage Daily Times blared- Soviet Fliers Stranded in Arctic; Distress Call Heard in Anchorage. The aircraft, and the 6 Russians on board have never been found. Efforts through the years to locate the plane have taken Alaskan pilot Ron Sheardown and Russian filmmakers and relatives of the crew to the Canadian Arctic and Alaska. Sheardown has been flying in the arctic for 60 years. He says they have reason to believe three Inupiaq hunters at Oliktok Point, northwest of Prudhoe bay, may have seen the plane go down on August 13th, 1937 in between Spy and Thesis Island.
Lori Townsend is the chief editor, senior vice president of journalism and senior host for Alaska Public Media. You can send her news tips and program ideas for Talk of Alaska and Alaska Insight at ltownsend@alaskapublic.org or call 907-550-8452. Read more about Lori here.
