the burning plane, opened the door, removed and threw all of the mail to safety. He completed the task and ran from the ship only a few second before the gasoline tanks exploded. (Signed) James A Farley, Postmaster General" Later life Affidavit On December 18, 1936, just three days after a United Air Line twin-engine Boeing plane was lost with 12 persons on board near Saugus, CA, another plane was reported missing. This was Northwest Airlines westbound Flight 1. The Lockheed 10A Electra (NC 14935) piloted by Joseph P Livermore and co-pilot Arthur Haid was en route from Chicago to Seattle with ten intermediate stops. It had departed Missoula, Montana, at 12:33 a.m. bound for Spokane, Washington. At 1:59 a.m. pilot Livermore reported that they were not receiving range signals and the plane was picking up ice. They requested the radio personnel stationed at Spokane to listen for the flight in the skies over the range station. Spokane could not hear the airplane and confirmed that the signal generator was working properly. Livermore next radioed that they were over a town with a large number of lights and asked Spokane to check his position as they could not stay up much longer due to the ice. At 3:19 a.m. a telephone operator confirmed that a plane was circling Elk River, Idaho, and pilot Livermore was notified of his location. He then radioed they were now on course on the "south leg" of Spokane "heading north." No further contact was made. On December 26 the wreckage of the plane was found about from the top of a mountain known as Cemetery Ridge in the Saint Joe National Forest near Kellogg, Idaho. It was determined the aircraft had impacted while in level flight and was destroyed catching fire; the two pilots were killed instantly. The weather that evening had been reported as light rains at low level, light snow squalls, and icing conditions and it was believed there was possible fog in the area. A subsequent investigation found no failures in the aircraft, but noted the possibility of instrumentation problems. Livermore had gone north rather than the standard western route, possibly to shorten the time in the storm, and may have become lost, being unfamiliar with the area, when they flew into the mountain top at 3:23 a.m., just four minutes after their last transmission. The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) headed