Still Missing: Rethinking the D.B. Cooper Case and Other Mysterious Unsolved Disappearances (12 page)

The mission was suspended on 15 July after the entire route and all leads had been thoroughly searched.

The mission was reopened and re-suspended to check an additional non-productive lead in the Horton Bay area.

Mission suspension was based on the high probability that if the Blocks had survived the crash uninjured, they would have been located. If the occupants were injured to the degree that they were unable to signal or walk out, statistics bear out that they would have most likely succumbed in the first 24 hours (80%) with just about complete certainty after three days.

Based on past missions of this nature where large bodies of water are not involved, the search objective is most likely located at a later time by hiker or hunter.

I deeply regret that we were unable to locate your parents but I am firmly convinced that the search was thorough and complete. If I can be of any other assistance, feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,

George E. Eldridge, Lt. Col, USAF

Deputy Director, Inland SAR

In early November of 1977,
The Detroit News
published an article pleading with hunters to keep an eye out for the missing aircraft and its passengers. The missing couple’s sons were hoping the now bare of leaves woodlands and forests would create improved visibility for the thousands of deer hunters traversing the woods of Northern Michigan. John Sr.’s next in command at the Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant, Assistant Fire Chief Maurice Holman was interviewed for the article and gave insight as to what could have happened to the Blocks:

EAST DETROIT PILOT, WIFE MISSING
SINCE JULY 4

SONS HOPE HUNTERS WILL FIND
LOST PARENTS

By Jack Crellin, News Staff Writer

Can the 700,000-man army of gun-toting deer hunters heading into the Michigan woods starting Nov. 15 help to unravel the baffling July 4 disappearance of an East Detroit couple and their aircraft?

The couple’s sons and friends are betting considerable money and effort that they can.

Despite extensive air and ground searches, there has been no clue to the fate of John Block, 57, fire chief at the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive Command in Warren and his wife, Jean.

They were on a routine flight last July 4, in Block’s single-engine Cessna 150 to Lost Creek Sky Ranch near Luzerne in the northern Lower Peninsula.

Aided by contributions from friends of the family and Block’s co-workers at the arsenal, their sons, Mickey and John, have had 3,000 circulars printed and distributed for display in post offices, supermarkets, taverns and law-enforcement agencies throughout the Lower Peninsula, hoping to enlist the cooperation of the hunters.

Maurice Holman, acting fire chief at the arsenal, has spent almost every weekend since July flying over the state in search of his close friends. He theorizes the small plane may have crashed into a large tree and was literally “swallowed up “ in the foliage.

Another theory is the plane may have been blown to bits either by an explosion or a bolt of lightning.

The circulars contain a detailed description of the Blocks, and their plane, which had white wings and lower fuselage, orange wing tips and a green upper fuselage. The tail number was N50935. The latter is important, in Holman’s view.

“Even a scrap of debris that looks like it might have come from a plane of that description might provide the key.” He said. “The way things have been going, it is like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack.”

The basic facts in the Blocks’ disappearance are these:

They left Macomb Airport in New Haven, north of Mt. Clemens, at approximately 11:10 a.m., July 4, headed to Luzerne, about 200 miles north.

Holman says Block, as a pilot, was what was known as a “road runner.” Not instrument-rated, he flew visually by following major highways, in this case, undoubtedly I-75.

Somewhere between Flint and Bay City, he ran into a line of squalls and turned southwest, eventually landing at Charlotte Airport, south of Lansing in the center of the state, at about 12:50 p.m.

The airport was not selling fuel that day, and the Blocks took off 15 minutes later headed north.

“As a Road-Runner, all he had to do was follow US-27 north, “said Holman, noting that Block should have had enough gas for three hours of flying, more than enough to reach his destination.

This leads to the conclusion that Block may have encountered more foul weather and became disoriented.

“But it doesn’t answer why, if he got in trouble, he didn’t send a distress call over his two-way radio,” said Holman.

The search for the Blocks was extensive and meticulous.

Holman and others even went so far as to get copies of weather satellite pictures of Michigan on the day the Blocks disappeared.

Literally hundreds of Civil Air Patrol Coast Guard and Air Force planes searched for two weeks before officially calling off the hunt.

Firemen from the Tank-Automotive Command and other friends of the Blocks walked the forests near Luzerne, an area dotted with lakes and swamps.

Adrian “Russ” Fuller, a public affairs specialist at the arsenal, has taken a deep, personal interest in the case.

Map of search area created by John and Mike Block.

“Michigan is known as sort of a ‘Bermuda Triangle’ for small planes,” he wrote in a recent issue of the Tank Automotive News, official publication for the center.

“Some have vanished and never been found, including one which disappeared near the Lake Superior shoreline in the mid-‘50s with three occupants aboard. Some bits of wreckage from this plane were found, but the occupants were never located.”

“Another plane vanished and was not found until 12 years later. Another was found after six years.”

People like Holman and Fuller do not think Block went down in Lake Huron or Lake Michigan because both big waters were so far off his course and were heavily populated with boaters on the holiday.

Around the same time, John Sr.’s place of work published a brief article in the company’s newsletter,
The U.S. Army Tank-Automotive Material Readiness Command Bulletin No. 128
, stating:

ITEM 12. ATTENTION DEER/SMALL
GAME HUNTERS

As you know, the aircraft flown by our Fire Chief, John Block and his wife, Jean was reported missing on 4 Jul 77. It would be appreciated, while you are hunting this year, to be especially alert for any unusual wreckage pertaining to a downed aircraft. If you sight any wreckage, mark the area and notify the local police agency or the Fire Prevention & Protection Branch at the Detroit Arsenal. The command and the Fire Department wish to thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

After months without new clues, a Montmorency woman reports a potential clue as cited in excerpts of the following report filed by Lt. Tom Schmuckal, of the Grand Traverse Sheriff’s Department:

On November 13, the Montmorency County Sheriff’s Department was contacted by Mrs. Alice Walker today who stated that while she was out in the woods picking pine cones for decorations for Christmas gifts, as she was bent over, a piece of material fell out of a tree and struck her either on the shoulder or on the head.

She stated it startled her and she looked at the material and dropped it, and then went back to the house. The reason for contacting the Chief today was that in last night’s paper and news, it was being repeated for deer hunters in that area to be on the lookout as they are hunting for the plane described in previous brochures. Mrs. Walker then believed that she should transmit this information on to the authorities.

Initially, it was found that the piece of material was described as celery green material and insulation that fell out of the tree. However, this was later proved not to be true as will be shown in this information.

In further questioning her, the chief discovered that she did, on July 4, along with her daughter, hear a crash and what they thought maybe cries for help. She stated at that time that not too much attention was paid to it as she is on the turn pattern for the National Guard Aircraft working the Grayling Training Area. Mrs. Walker lives in Section 29, Co Rd 612, Montmorency County.

Chief Wilding also advised that he had contacted Tom Dixon from Gaylord who is the head of the Civil Air Patrol, and was advised by him that they could do nothing for two days as they were tied up in Canada on another operation, and they also are tied up for a few days.

As initially described, the piece of material was larger than a dinner plate, possibly 18 to 20 inches. She stated it was perforated, celery green in color, however, it is now discovered, after Lt. Schmuckal visited the State Police Post, that the material was not metal, however was a cloth type material and the perforations would be possibly holes in the material for insulation and sound absorption.

On November 14, Officer Schmuckal went to Lewiston and met with chief of Police and Michigan State Police Troopers at the Walker residence. At that residence, along with the police officers, were approximately eleven searchers, and they were already in the woods at the time of this officers arrival, to the south and to the east of the residence.

At 9:37 a.m., Mrs. Walker found that piece of material she had found and lost again, as previously mentioned. It appears that this material is very similar to carpet padding or seat padding in an automobile. Mrs. Walker did maintain that it fell out of the tree and further discussion with her revealed that no information had changed from yesterday.

At 10:30 a.m., the United States Helicopter from the coast Guard Station in Traverse City left Traverse City and arrived at the scene at 11:15 a.m. and began a grid search pattern in Section 29. The area suspected where a plane may have gone down. At 11:20 a.m., the Michigan State Police Helicopter #1 arrived and they began a grid type search pattern in the next section to the east of section 29.

At 12:25 p.m., the Coast Guard Helicopter discontinued the search because of fuel shortage and came back to Traverse City. The State Police Helicopter continued until 1315 hours, when they too abandoned the search.

With all the incidents surrounding this, the air searches and foot searches, and nothing being turned up, it was decided by Troopers that at this point, the search should be discontinued.

In further examining, the piece of material that apparently struck Mrs. Walker while she was bent over, is believed to be from a junk automobile parked very close by, that being padding in the seat.

It is a very good possibility that an animal such as a squirrel carried this item up into the tree where it became stuck and at the moment Mrs. Walker was working in that area it fell from the tree striking her.

Mrs. Walker said in her second interview, that the crash she heard occurred at dusk, in the PM of the 4
^th
. In reference to the material that was found, he described it now as being a real pale green, which resembled a filter out of a furnace, however, not as thick or fuzzy, and that the edges of the material were extremely jagged. The Walkers have a collie dog, that does roam the farm area, and a few days after the crash that Mrs. Walker heard, the dog seemed to be acting very strange as he would not eat well, and had a very strange odor about him. Mrs. Walker went on to explain that she had heard the plane but could not see it. In reverence to the hearing of the plane she stated that the engine noise all of a sudden stopped, and shortly thereafter she did hear the crash.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Walker’s lead didn’t pan out, and the hopes of finding the Blocks before the first snow fall faded away.

Snow covering the ground signaled the end of warm weather, and the end of any chance of finding the crash site and the Block’s bodies until the spring thaw. The fresh snow would not only cover the airplane wreckage, but also make most wooded areas inaccessible, although there was a slim possibility snowmobilers could find something,

Jointly, the brothers decided to hold a funeral service for their parents, even though they didn’t have their bodies to bury, yet. But surely some hunter or hiker would stumble upon the crash site and report it once the snow melted.