The And the In mid-October of 1972, Louisiana Congressman Hale Boggs, packed his bags and caught a flight up to the largest but youngest state in the Union, Alaska.

He was a man on a mission and hoped to turn the tide of a very contentious general election,

and which fellow Democrat Nick Begich was facing an uphill battle against the more popular Republican candidate,

Don Young.

Bogg's primary goal was to raise funds for Begich's political war chest, but the charismatic

occasion couldn't resist some good old-fashioned southern-style glad handling with potential

voters and often accompanied his

colleague on the campaign trail. Then on October 16th of 1972, with less than a

month before voting day, Bogs and Beggich decided to take a flight from

Anchorage, Alaska's most populated city to the state capital of Juneau.

The 90 minute flight took off after dark with the politicians intending on a few hours sleep in a

Juno hotel before starting bright and early on the campaign trail.

But despite taking off without incident, the plane carrying bogs and baggage never landed,

and what followed was one of the largest search and rescue efforts in Alaska's history.

As per Alaska's state law, the small aircraft which carried bogs and

baggage was required to carry an emergency location transmitter. When

activated, this device would relay two locations to state aviation authorities.

The first location would mark the point where an aircraft first ran into trouble,

while the second would mark the site of the aircraft's crash landing.

But what puzzled investigators was the fact that the Cessna hadn't sent out a single emergency

transmission prior to its disappearance.

To some, this suggested that the plane's pilot had neglected to bring one aboard prior to take off.

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