ECHO NEWS — It was on October 16, 1972, that Alaska’s lone member of the U.S. House of Representatives and three others, including a prominent member of Congress from New Orleans, disappeared on a flight from Anchorage to Juneau.
Nicholas Joseph Begich was declared dead in December after the plane was never found despite a major search effort. The crash was believed to have been caused by bad weather although no wreckage or debris has ever been found.
Begich was a 1952 graduate of St. Cloud State.
The tragedy and the all-out military and Coast Guard search for the missing plane led to passage by Congress of legislation requiring locator beacons be placed in all aircraft.
