Wreckage Missing Since 1964 Recovered In Yukon

Many relatives of Chuck McAvoy, Albert Kunes and Doug Torp hoped that someday, the three men would walk out of the Alaskan wilderness. In 1964, the three men, with McAvoy at the controls, climbed on board the aircraft loaded for a gold hunt. They flew into the Great White North, into the Canadian arctic wilderness, and were never heard from again.

For 39 years, family members, suspecting the worst but still clinging to hope, waited for word. Some refused to change addresses when they moved, keeping two mailboxes for fear they'd miss a vital communication from the men in the process. But in the end, the wreckage of the aircraft was found in the bush, about 250 miles north of Yellowknife, the provincial capital of The Yukon Territory. Remains of all three were recovered.

There's no indication why the aircraft went down, although family members say the wreckage of the fabric-covered aircraft was burned.

Bruce Torp, Doug Torp's brother, said his mother "was always hoping that he would walk out of the woods someday. He might have been adopted by the Indians, or who knows," Torp said Saturday from his home in Burnet, Texas. "But after five years or so, you figure that's too far-fetched and just assume he died."

Kunes will be buried near his parents in Phillips (WI). His mother kept two mailboxes — one in Prentice (WI), where her son was high school valedictorian, and one in nearby Phillips, where they later moved. "She just wouldn't change any address for fear that someone would write and they wouldn't be able to find them," said Lucille Kunes, widow of James Kunes, who died last year. "Every single day his mother would listen for the phone to ring." The phone never rang.

After a long, cold sleep in the arctic, Chuck McAvoy, Albert Kunes and Doug Torp have officially gone west. Happy landings to them all.

FMI: www.faa.gov