The Disappearence of Majority Leader Hale Boggs of Louisiana and Representative Nicholas Begich of Alaska

October 16, 1972

On this date, a small charted plane carrying Majority Leader Hale Boggs  of Louisiana, Alaska Representative Nicholas Begich, and a Begich aide disappeared between Anchorage and Juneau, Alaska, during a campaign trip.  Boggs, hoping to win the loyalty of Begich (a freshman who had opposed him a year earlier in a bruising leadership contest), agreed to barn-storm the state on a 48-hour trip.  After a Sunday evening speaking engagement on October 15 in Anchorage, they left for the state capital the next morning.  The twin-engine Cessna never arrived, vanishing in abysmal weather conditions. At noon on October 17, Thomas “Tip” O’Neill of Massachusetts, in his role as Democratic Whip, made the announcement in the well of the House. “It is our hope and prayer, of course, that the men will be found safe,” he told anxious Members.  The disappearance set in motion the largest search and rescue operation to that point in American history: involving 40 military aircraft, 50 civilian planes, a search grid of 325,000 square miles, and more than 3,600 hours of search time. After 39 days, the search was called off with no sign of wreckage or survivors.

Related Highlight Subjects

• Boggs, Hale (4)
• Democratic Whip (3)
• O'Neill, Thomas P. (Tip) (4)
• Majority Leader (11)

Cite

Representative Hale Boggs served 14 non-consecutive terms in the House of Representatives. Image courtesy of the Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives