The Daily Alaska empire., 1950-02-01
N EW CLUE OF MISSING
 TRANSPORT
Weak Emergency Signal Is Picked Up : Renewed
 Search for Lost Plane
By RAY F. HARvIsON

WHITEHORSE, VT, Feb. 1--H A pickup of faint radio signals on the distress band" raised hopes anew today in the far-flung search for a missing C-54 transport and the A persons aboard.
 The US Air Force four engine plane, bound for the states from Alaska, has been missing since last Thursday. The greatest search in Far North aerial history has been pressed for 1t.
 The report that another US. Air Force C-54 had picked up the weak signals came from Fort Nelson, BC. Hours later, search coordination headquarters in Whitehorse con- firmed that it had received the re- port from Fort Nelson.
 A plane was ordered to take off before dawn with special radio technicians. They will concentrate on locating the faint signals and tracing them, if possible, to their source.
 A fleet of searcn planes followed in an intensified sweep of the re- zion, about 450 miles southeast of Whitehorse.
 CThe Canadian press said reports of weak signals have been received previously in other areas, but had proved groundless).
 The area where new hope was rexiyed iss about 80 miles east or Watson Lake in the Yukon, close to the Yukon-British Columbia boundary. It is about 130 miles northwest of Fort Nelson, B.C., a main point on the Alaska highway airline route.
 The first report of the weak radio signal came from Lachlan Mac Donald, an Anchorage, Alaska, Times reporter. He was aboard the C-54 cargo-carrying plane that picked up the signals while flying south to Fort Nelson. A. d.iIi T Standard Time (3:16 am, EST. Key Signal Tt was not verbal distress sig nal." Macdonald said. but key signal on the distress band" At Whitehorse headquarters. the report raised new hopes but was discussed by Royal Canadian Air Force officers with moderation.
 The C-54 which picked up the signals had an experience of it's own to demonstrate the difficulty of communications under present sub-zero weather conditions in the north. Macdonald said it tried to radio what it had heard to both Whitehorse and Fort Nelson, but it failed to get confirmation that either had heard it.
 The new development raised hopes for survivors from the missing plane after they had sunk to the lowest ebb after the fifth successive day of fruitless aerial searching over vast area of the Yukon.
 Last Signal
 The last radio signal received from the missing C-54 in flight was from Snag. Yukon. just across the border from Alaska. That is about l TOO miles northwest of the area in ! tuI,ich t,oxu Hnx,o hoe c,v,tnr
 After the final Snag report. some l radiomen expressed the belief it was from an emergency radio
 If the C-54 succeeded in landing without a disastrous crash, those aboard would have been equipped for survival in the severe cold. The l plane carried survival equipment and supplies which are standard equipment in Arctic flying.
 However, Wing Commander Walmsley, head of the R.C.A.F. search and rescue headquarters at Winnipeg, said that after the first two days the chances of surviving a plane crash "deteriorate terrific ally each passing day"
 Temperatures Drop
 Temperatures yesterday in the search region ran below zero. It was 6 below at Whitehorse.
 Similar temperatures were ex- pected today Clearing skies gave promise of good searching weather.
 The area in which the signals were heard is one of rugged. noun tainous terrain.
 First Clue
 The radio signal was the second. and most likely clue in the vast air search for the C-54 which dis