Turkana IV

[Mikey]

Oh, a similar thing happened in TOS "Bread and Circuses", where the Enterprise is investigating the loss of the SS Beagle, lost six years ago. But in that case the dialogue could be taken to indicate that the ship had just mysteriously vanished and now the wreckage was discovered, rather than that they hadn't yet gotten around to looking for it.

Holy hopping snot. I am such a moron. Just now - even though I've had forty years to realize it - after seeing it in type in your post above, did I realize the reference of the name SS Beagle.

[McAvoy]

Off hand is Yar's Planet a Federation Planet? I am just thinking maybe it was a colony world that was colonized without the approval or support of the UFP. A private planet if you were. Connected to the Federation but without the protection or support of it. So the UFP left it alone.

Maybe an authorized colonization of a planet gets more from the Federation than one that wasn't authorized or supported.

[Graham Kennedy]

That's a distinct possibility. We really don't know a lot about how colonisation works in the Federation. Sometimes people seem to just leave and aren't heard from again for decades. Other times Starfleet actually establishes a colony itself.