New KSL podcast ‘Unsolved Histories,’ sheds light on disappearance of Flight 293
Oct 1, 2024, 9:00 PM
The DC-7C airliner that took off from McChord Air Force Base on June 3, 1963, with 101 passengers and crew on board, including Greg Barrowman's brother Bruce. (Northwest Airlines)
(Northwest Airlines)
When an 8-year-old boy named Greg Barrowman waved goodbye to his teenage brother Bruce at an airfield one June morning, that little boy had no idea that the events that would transpire on that fateful day would profoundly affect him and his family – and dozens of other families around the United States – for the next six decades.
“He was dressed in his uniform and ready to go,” Greg said. He was describing the moment U.S. Army Private Bruce Barrowman, who had just finished basic training, stepped out of the family car and onto the sidewalk near the passenger terminal. “[It was] kind of a proud moment.”
Greg explains that his was a strict family. They didn’t show emotion publically.
“We had one of those good ‘adult’ kinds of goodbyes, where we all got out and stood face to face with a handshake and hugs,” Greg said. “We were a little more disciplined, I think, where you were little men and women, instead of a bunch of goofy kids.”
Private Bruce Barrowman was a passenger on Flight 293, traveling to his first active-duty assignment for the U.S. Army in Alaska. (Courtesy Greg Barrowman)
The Douglas DC-7C
That morning, Bruce and 100 other men, women, and children boarded Northwest Airlines Flight 293. It was a Military Air Transport Service (MATS) charter flight. It was scheduled to travel between McChord Air Force Base near Tacoma, Washington and Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska.
The aircraft was a Douglas DC-7C, one of the last propeller airliners designed and built before the age of jet travel. Most of the passengers were active-duty military members like Bruce. But there were also spouses and dependent children, and a handful of civilian government employees.
The six crewmembers were skilled and experienced civilian employees of Northwest Airlines. Ahead lay what was expected to be a routine flight. It was supposed to last roughly six hours, ferrying people to military postings and federal jobs in Alaska during the Cold War.
No rudder on the ship of the family
But Flight 293 never arrived at Elmendorf Air Force Base. With no warning, no distress call, the DC-7C crashed into the ocean west of the Dixon Entrance in the Gulf of Alaska.
Nobody survived the crash. Officials never recovered any bodies. Among those lost on Flight 293 were individuals traveling alone. Lost, too, were entire families traveling together.
Greg was devastated by the loss of his big brother Bruce. After the crash, things would never be the same for Greg’s parents, for Greg, or his remaining three siblings. The disappearance of Flight 293 broke his family apart.
The 10-page Aircraft Accident Report for Flight 293 was released to the public by the Civil Aeronautics Board in April 1964. (Courtesy Carolyn Olsen Bishop)
“I think my sister put it best,” Greg says. “There was no rudder on the ship [of our family] anymore.”
Military gives up searching for Flight 293
Greg’s family and every other family of those left behind never got answers about why the DC-7C crashed. The military gave up searching for the plane just days after it crashed.
Investigations by the federal government into the cause of the crash were inconclusive. If the military did try to figure out what happened to Flight 293, a record of that effort has been lost.
Did the Army and Air Force forget about Flight 293? It was, after all, just a military charter of a civilian aircraft. Many of the families left in the wake of Flight 293 feel they have been forgotten, too.
On the first episode of Unsolved Histories: What Happened to Flight 293?, you’ll meet Greg Barrowman. We’ll learn what it was like to live through the aftermath of the tragedy. To understand the loss and the grief. And, to never give up the search for answers and closure.
