Still Missing: Rethinking the D.B. Cooper Case and Other Mysterious Unsolved Disappearances by Ross Richardson Page B
Authors: Ross Richardson
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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
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
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