Hidden somewhere in the Yukon Territory is a mystery that no one seems to be able to answer — an airplane that disappeared 74 years ago, on its way from Alaska to the continental United States, seemingly without a trace.

On board were 44 people — 42 servicemen plus a woman and her small son.

Over the years there has been speculation about what might have happened. Some thoughts range from strange — it was caught in a time vortex, like the Bermuda triangle — to the more plausible — the plane disappeared beneath the ice of a frozen lake. Some argue that it probably flew into one of the mountain ranges in that area, crashed and then was covered with snow. No one, as yet, has been able to give a definitive answer to the mystery of the plane’s disappearance.

On Jan. 26, a Douglas C-54 Skymaster, flight 2469 took off from Elmendorf Air Base in Anchorage headed for Great Falls, Montana. According to accounts, about two hours into what should have been around an eight hour flight, the crew radioed that the plane was encountering moderate turbulence and heavy icing. That was the last communication received from the aircraft.

A search was conducted for about a month, but the plane and its passengers were never located.

For the families of those on board that airplane, it also remains a mystery why the United States and Canadian governments stopped looking for the military transport many years ago and have not taken up the search ever again. Private individuals over the years have tried to locate the plane, but with no success so far.

Junior Moore, a resident of Montgomery, was on the Skymaster. Returning from a tour of duty at Elmendorf, Moore was headed home and out of the service.

Most of Moore’s 10 siblings, including four brothers who had also served in the military, have passed away. Only his sister Pat Moore Haupt, of Muncy, remains along with nieces, nephews and cousins.

Pat remembers clearly the day the family received news of the plane disappearing with her brother aboard. Junior was 22 years old when the plane disappeared. He was one of the middle siblings in the family and Pat was the youngest child, around 13 years old at the time of the tragedy.

“The only thing I remember is the telegram that we got that his plane had disappeared and they didn’t know where it was,” Pat said.

“I remember that day just as clear as a bell, when I opened the door and the lady came with the telegram. I remember it so well,” she said.

She remembers her mom lying on the couch. “She would cry and then sleep a little and then cry again,” Pat said.

The first telegram was followed later by another saying that they still had not found the plane.

Over the years, Pat shared, when the family would get together at holidays or special occasions, their thoughts would always turn to Junior.

“We all sat and talked about it all the time and mom talked about his childhood…He was always good to me,” Pat said.

Now the family is left with their memories and letters written by Junior about how he was spending his time while in the military.

In one, written about a month before the plane crash, he tells his older sister Sylvia, “I guess you thought I had died or something.”

In the same letter he talks about how he expects to be home soon — “some time around the last of February.”

Sylvia’s son, Larry Floyd, who was about a year old at the time his uncle’s plane disappeared, only has recollections of Junior through memories his mother shared before she passed away in 1990.

Floyd has been in communication with a filmmaker, Andrew Gregg whose film “Skymaster Down” explores the crash and possible causes. There have also been other documentaries and YouTube videos about the mystery of the crash.

One thing that Floyd and the other family members find disturbing is what they consider the short time spent actually trying to find the wreckage of the plane after it disappeared.

“The part that bothers me is the search didn’t last long enough,” Floyd said recently.

“It was a difficult search. When they had done the initial search, so many things were happening at that time with the Russians and the ‘Red Scare’ and everything else. At that timem we also lost an atomic bomb somewhere. So the search was kind of given up,” he said.

The family referred to the policy of the military of leaving no man behind.

“We left over 40 behind and there really has not been an effort in my lifetime to pursue that search,” Floyd said.

Although almost 75 years have passed, Pat said that she never stops thinking about her brother.

“I think of him every day and wonder where he is — every day,” she said.

“I think about him all the time. I’ll run across a picture or something…he’s still here with me,” she said.

The family would like to have something, some type of memorial to the people lost on that flight.

“Wouldn’t it be nice, somewhere down the road, if they put up a memorial somewhere in the United States with their names on it,” said JoAnn Welch, Pat’s daughter-in-law.

“Somewhere, put a stone or something to remember all those people,” Pat said. “That’s a lot of people that’s never heard from their families.”

“I would love for something to be done at least before I go, so I would be at peace with that,” she added.