Found at Dawn: A Boarding Pass No One Claimed

Found at Dawn: A Boarding Pass No One Claimed

A pristine boarding pass bearing a 22-year-old woman's name was found face-up on frozen caliche at a tiny municipal airfield that has never run commercial flights - and the ticket referenced a real Bombardier CRJ-700 that landed and left with no public passenger records. Who printed Frances McCarthy a legitimate ticket for a six forty-five departure from an airport she had never visited, on a flight that vanished from public paperwork?

In this episode, you’ll hear how a county surveyor found the pass, what the airport operations manager logged, and how an independent journalist began an eleven-month inquiry that followed one impossible document. Could a single boarding pass unlock who boarded that night, and why it was never recorded?

Person: Frances McCarthy
Date: December 14, 2017
Location: Cañada Seca Municipal Airport
Aircraft: Bombardier CRJ-700
Investigation length: eleven months

- The boarding pass was found at 7:53 AM on December 14, 2017.
- Frances McCarthy was 22 years old and asleep 12 miles away when the pass was found.
- The CRJ-700 landed the night before at 11:18 PM from Midland, Texas.
- Airport fueler Carl Fitch logged 1,200 gallons of Jet-A paid in cash under Revalon Air LLC.
- The aircraft departed at approximately 6:30 AM, 15 minutes before the printed 6:45 AM departure time.

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