On October 16, 1972, a twin-engine Cessna 310C piloted by 38-year-old Don Edgar Jones left Anchorage for Juneau with three passengers: Congressman Nick Begich, aide Russell Brown, and House Majority Leader Hale Boggs. Jones, an experienced pilot credited with over 17,000 flight hours, filed a visual flight rules plan and planned to route through Portage Pass. The last known communication came shortly after takeoff amid marginal weather with rain, low visibility, and turbulence.

When the Cessna, tail number N1812H, never arrived in Juneau, one of the largest search efforts in U.S. history began. Military and civilian aircraft searched an estimated 325,000 square miles for 39 days but found no wreckage, bodies, or other trace. The plane lacked an emergency locator transmitter. On December 29, 1972, Jones and the three men aboard were declared dead. The NTSB could not determine a probable cause because no physical evidence was recovered; prevailing theories point to weather and possible icing, but the absence of wreckage has left the disappearance unresolved.