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Yet another baffling case is the disappearance of 56 year old Jack Houston
and his Twin Bonanza. Although flying over the busy Florida Keys and shallow
Bay of Florida, no one reported seeing his plane crash or finding any debris.
Houston informed his wife that he was going to Key West to get some good
scuba diving in for a couple of days. The date was November 19, 1979.
This is the prime season in the Keys, when the weather is down right
bearable rather than the stifling humidity of summer. The tourist
population will near its peak soon. The Keys are crowded with
all sorts of day sailors, charters, fishermen; and the inter
coastal highway below is busy with traffic heading south to
Key West and its fishing attractions. Cars are pulling trailers
with boats, jet skies, sail boards, even subs! Boatniks are
everywhere! In other words, it’s a busy time!
Jack Houston took off early, at 6:30 a.m. from Antiguers Field,
Delray Beach. The dawn was beautiful and the skies would soon
be bright and blue. The weather was forecast to be perfect
that day.
But the same scenario as in the other missing in the Bermuda Triangle
repeats itself. He never arrived at Key West. On the 24th he was declared
overdue (apparently he did not file a Flight Plan). The CAP started a search.
A total of 18 aircraft flew over the shallow Keys, the Bay of Florida, and the
thousands of islands round about (including the Gulf Stream). Some 37.7 flight
hours were expended . . . nothing was found.
No FSU (Flight Service Unit or Station) had heard any Mayday. No ELT signal had been picked up. Whatever happened to Houston must have happened as it did to so many others: it was either too swift for a Mayday, or he didn’t understand what was happening in order to send one.
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