The Final Flight of Curtiss R5C-1, Buno. 39528

Histories of the UFO phenomenon usually begin with Kenneth Arnold’s sighting of a formation of strange craft flying “like a saucer skipping across water” near Mount Rainier, Washington, USA, on 24 June 1947. Accounts of the Arnold sighting usually mention that he was looking for a missing transport plane at the time.

That transport was a USMC Curtiss R5C-1 – Naval version of the C-46 — Bureau of Aeronautics no. 39528. She and the 32 Marines aboard her disappeared on 10 December 1946 over the Cascade Mountains while en route from MCAS El Toro, California, to NAS Sand Point, Washington. On 21 July 1947, an off duty National Park Service ranger found the wreckage of the missing R5C-1 while hiking on Mount Rainier.

The saga of that R5C-1, and those persons associated with her, is a sad but fascinating story in its own right. Here are two accounts of it:

http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=pf_output.cfm&file_id=7820

http://www.sarinfo.bc.ca/RainierGodsMonument.htm