The Airplane Search Continues!
With Captain John and Sean
Somewhere along the East Side of Mount Mitchell
Yancey County, NC
Thursday, July 23rd and Friday, July 24th, 2020
Group Photo at the start of our Bushwhack
L to R: Me, Sean, Captain John
My friend Captain John who is a commercial airline pilot has an obsession with seeking out old airplane crash sites. I have had the pleasure of joining him on several of these searches over the past few years.
On October 5th, 1949 a Douglas C-47D (DC-3) crashed somewhere on the side of Mount Mitchell. So far we have had 3 failed attempts at finding this crash site.
Maybe Sean (aka Christopher SCC) would be our good luck charm this time?
Since I would already be up in the area for my hike with The Professor to check out the Butts, I decided to spend the night in the area. Our friend Chip offered us the use of his cabin for the night. Chip's cabin is an amazing spot, but it is definitely not easy to get to! Fortunately, I always enjoy the hike/bushwhack to the cabin and this time was no exception!
Sean would join me on the hike to the cabin.
Selfie with Sean at the start of our hike to Chip's cabin
view from the trail
A nice cluster of Turk's Cap Lillies
View from the Trail
Panorama
Overlooking the Blue Ridge Parkway
The Cabin at Night
Captain John attempted to make his hike shorter, but ran into some issues with locked gates. After Sean fell asleep on me, I was able to get in touch with John and determine which way he was planning on hiking in. I decided to go on a midnight stroll and met him for the final part of his hike to the cabin.
It was well after midnight by the time we got back to the cabin and we ended up going to sleep at about the same time I am usually waking up!
Morning Selfie at the Cabin
After cleaning up the cabin from our visit, we locked up and began the hike back to our vehicles.
We made a slight detour on the hike out to take Sean to his first airplane crash site.
Sean by an old plane wreck
Morning view on the hike out from Chip's Cabin
Tailgate Breakfast!
After a nice tailgate breakfast we drove up to the parking area near the summit of Mount Mitchell to being the search.
Bushwhacking alongside the steep eastern slope of Mount Mitchell is no easy task and it took us about 5 hours to cover 2.5 miles. We did find some interesting things along the way, but no airplane wreck!
Canine Skull
Interesting Fungus
We were getting very close to giving up! "My optimism is seriously waning" is what I said about 2 minutes before I spotted the wreckage.
First sight of the airplane wreckage
Group Selfie at the Crash Site
Captain John at the Crash Site
We were all pretty excited to finally find the crash site, however it quickly became obvious that this wreckage was not from the Douglas C-47D (DC-3) we were looking for. After some research I determined that the crash site we found was from this 1992 crash that none of us was even aware of.
BL-26(AF)
Bellanca 17-30A(NTSB)
Here is a link to another article about the crash site we found.
While we still have not achieved our ultimate goal of finding the 1949 crash site, we all had a great time bushwhacking around the side of Mount Mitchell!
I made a few quick stops along the Blue Ridge Parkway on my drive home to check out some of the views!
View from the Blue Ridge Parkway
My Favorite Tree along the Blue Ridge Parkway
My complete set of photos is posted here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/8146392@N05/albums/72157715306102222
