O

N

A



C

R

E

W

COMING UP! MORE GOLD!

Lost gold
A ferry flight from McGuire AFB, NJ to JFK, 
NY got me questioned by the F.B.I. about it. 

Somebody or a group of people put a load of 
illegal (not authorized or declared listed) 
gold in the belly of one of our aircraft 
overseas someplace and it flew around onboard 
for a number of flights undetected. 

It was finally found and reported to authorities, 
if I remember right by our Rep. in Charleston, 
SC. So it set off an investigation by the F.B.I. 
as to where it came from and from who, who loaded 
it, where it was going and to whom and I guess if 
any of it was missing. I heard ahead of time that 
all crews that flew this aircraft during the time 
the gold was onboard, where being questioned by 
the F.B.I. and knew sooner or later they would 
contact me. 

So when they did I told them I knew what all the 
questions were about and I only ferried it from 
McGuire AFB, NJ to JFK, NY. First of all a ferry 
flight to our home base, I didn’t look into any 
of the belly compartments and I would of needed 
a ladder to do so, which none were in sight. 

When I got out to the aircraft for my preflight 
it was already all unloaded, main cabin and all 
belly compartments. 

I actually found the newspaper account of it in 
my archives and the following is a copy of the 
article except it was continued on another page, 
which I don’t have: 

“Huge Gold Shipment Goes Astray” 
- Charleston, S.C. - 
Two hundred-sixty pounds of gold Valued at more 
than $500,000, possibly stolen and bound for 
Saudi Arabia, has been found aboard a chartered 
plane. The charter company said an additional 
$800,000 in gold is missing. 

Patrick O’Brien, special agent in charge of 
investigations for the U.S. Customs Office in 
Charleston, said yesterday the 118 bars of gold, 
weighing 2.2 pounds each, were brought into this 
country illegally on a DC-8 owned by Overseas 
National Airlines Co., a private charter service 
based in New York." 

“I have reason to believe that the gold was stolen,”  
“The gold was destined from Zurich via Frankfurt 
to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and it was supposed – 
Cont. on back page Col. 1 – 

... to which I don’t have the continued page. 
I never heard what the outcome to this incident 
was, but I did hear our Rep. that found it put 
in a claim for it, if nobody claimed it. 

Now I don’t know if that’s true either.