Who: 

Twenty-four persons, and one C-135 aircraft, on a classified mission to observe French nuclear testing

Total Persons on Board:

24 - Twelve U.S. Air Force personnel, plus 12 civilians. 

Colonel Billy L. Skipworth - Pilot and commander of the 2nd Airborne Command and Control Squadron	Lieutenant Colonel Victor J. Reinhart - navigator	Major William H. Unsderfer - aircraft commander
Major William E. Page Junior -pilot	Major John R. McGinn - navigator	Major Joseph B. William
Captain Byron C. Burnett - Copilot	1st Lt. James M. Gilbert	Captain Perry T. Rose - pilot
Technical Sergeant Hubert Miles Junior  - boom operator	Staff Sergeant Kenneth S. Kowal	Staff Sergeant Elno R. Reimer - flight engineer
Anthony J. Theriault, an employee of the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratory	John P. Cahill, an employee of the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratory	David Penney, an employee of the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratory
Dean L. Hoar, an employee of Ling-Temco-Vought Aerospace	Rolla F. Blanchard, an employee of Ling-Temco-Vought Aerospace	Charles V. Ditto, an employee of Ling-Temco-Vought Aerospace
Thomas R. Connor	Donald E. Ashland,	John B. Tumas, an employee of LTV Electro Systems
Edward M. Slagel, an employee of Westinghouse Corp.	Dr. Thomas J. Walter, an employee of the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratory	Allen Morissette, an employee of Avco Corp.

When:

June 13th, 1971

Weather:

Low clouds, fog, drizzle - clear air turbulence was noted in the area of flight

Flight Route:

The aircraft was enroute from Pago Pago, American Samoa, to Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii

Area Believed Crashed:

Disappeared over the Pacific Ocean, 70 miles S of Hawaii, near Palmyra Island. - around coordinates 10°31' N, 161°59' W.

Reason for flight:

Returning to Hawaii after observing the French Encelade atmospheric nuclear test at Mururoa.

Type Plane:

A Boeing EC-135N, USAF Tail no. 61-0331,  A former Telemetry Range Instrumentation Aircraft, it had been recently converted to detect and analyze nuclear explosions and their related electromagnetic pulses,

Search efforts: 

The search began when the plane failed to reach Hickam AFB in Hawaii by its estimated arrival time of 3 p.m. that day. It had left Pago Pago five hours earlier with enough fuel for nine hours' flying.

An area 200 miles north of Palmyra Island was the center of search operations after rescue planes picked up the signal of a crash position indicator. A crash position indicator is ejected from a plane when the crew knows their craft is about to crash. The indicator gives a constant signal to guide search crews to the site.

Controversy: 

The cause of the crash was never publicly revealed. 

On April 6, 1981, nearly a decade after the crash, Kathryn Rose, widow of Captain Perry Rose, was awarded $2.9 million in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles for damages resulting from the accident.

Jean and Susan Miles, wife and daughter of Sergeant Hubert M. Miles, and 10 other Air Force wives were awarded $1.6 million on April 14, 1981.  The ruling was appealed, which resulted in this decision from the court.

For more information, view the following:

Alaska's Bermuda Triangle Examine every aspect of the mysterious disappearance of two congressmen that prompted the largest search and rescue operation ever launched by the U.S. military.