Date:	Thursday 2 August 1945
Time:	15:00 LT
Type:	Lockheed YP-80A Shooting Star
Owner/operator:	1st FGp USAAF
Registration:	44-83029
MSN:	080-1008
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	2 miles SE of Brandenburg, Kentucky -   United States of America
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	Wright Field AAF, OH
Destination airport:	Muroc AAF, CA

Narrative:
Lockheed YP-80A Shooting Star, 44-83029, c/n 080-1008, of the 1st Fighter Group, as of April 1945, crashed 2 miles south east of Brandenburg, Kentucky, killing pilot Major Ira Boyd Jones, 25, of Lancaster, South Carolina. "The plane left Wright Field, Ohio, shortly after 1400 hours, on a routine test flight to an unspecified army air field in Texas", said Brig. Gen. Joseph T. Morris, commanding general of Wright Field.

"Eight-year-old Chester and Martha Smedley, 14, of near Brandenburg, said they saw a 'big explosion' in the sky. Their father, Sheriff Alex Smedley of Meade county [sic], added that the explosion blew the wings loose from the fuselage, landing 200 or 300 feet apart. Maj. Jones' body, the sheriff said, was found about a quarter of a mile from the wreckage."

Maj. Jones, a fighter pilot with 11 months service in the China-Burma-India theatre, was attached to the fighter test branch at Wright Field. He was the son of Mrs. Mary C. Jones, of Lancaster, South Carolina, and was a graduate of the University of South Carolina.

This airframe was one the test P-80s shipped to Foggia, Italy, in December 1944, for tests by Wright Field personnel under combat conditions

1. Greenville, South Carolina, "Explosion Of Jet Ship Kills Lancaster Man", The Greenville Piedmont, Friday 3 August 1945, Volume 114, Number 166, page 6
2. Associated Press, "Lancaster Boy Killed in Crash Of Jet-Plane", The State, Columbia, South Carolina, Friday 3 August 1945, Number 19,782, page 1
3. http://www.aviationarchaeology.com/src/db.asp
4. http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/71485-project-extraversion-lockheed-yp-80a/
5. http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1944_5.html
6. http://forum.armyairforces.com/1st-FG-and-the-Lockheed-YP80A-Shooting-Star-m94873.aspx
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_military_aircraft_(1945%E2%80%9349)

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
04-Sep-2011 07:29	Uli Elch	Updated [Cn, Operator, Location]
16-Nov-2014 02:46	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Phase, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
13-Nov-2019 10:04	Anon.	Updated [Operator, Operator]
19-Apr-2020 08:32	Reno Raines	Updated [Operator, Location, Operator]