Airliner left Tacoma and ditched in the ocean in October 1962 April 14, 2021 at 10:30 am
Northwest Airlines DC-7C N285, which landed on the water off the coast of Alaska on October 22, 1962; everyone aboard survived, but the plane sank. Photo is believed to have been taken at Minneapolis-St. Paul airport in 1959. (Northwest Airlines History Center Museum)
Within a period of less than a year, two identical airliners took off from McChord Air Force Base near Tacoma – now JBLM – headed for Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska. Both were military charters operated by Northwest Airlines, and both were known as Flight 293. Each carried active duty Air Force and Army personnel, along with spouses and children.