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Date: | Wednesday 3 June 1942 |
Time: | 10:45 |
Type: | North American B-25D Mitchell |
Owner/operator: | 398th BSqn /21st BGp USAAF |
Registration: | 41-29652 |
MSN: | |
Fatalities: | Fatalities: 7 / Occupants: 7 |
Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
Location: | near Whistler, 8 miles NW of Mobile, Alabama -
United States of America
|
Phase: | En route |
Nature: | Military |
Departure airport: | |
Destination airport: | |
Narrative:At 1045 hrs the B-25D 41-29652 of 398th BS, 21st BG, based in Key Field, Meridian, Missouri, crashed and caught fire in a wooded section of suburban Whistler, Alabama, eight miles northwest of Mobile. All seven men aboard were killed.
Witnesses on the ground observed the airplane flying at approximately 500 feet above ground level in a north-eastelry direction in a gentle turn to the right. The airplane rolled through inverted, righting itself momentarily before diving into the ground and exploding violently into flames. Investigators could not determine teh cause of the crash and stated: "The violent maneuvers of the airplane could have been caused by switching on the Automatic Flight Control Equipment. Several pilots in this group have experienced violent changes in attitude when switching on flight controls or AFCE. One other probable cause is that the pilot, when seeing himself lose altitude while flying so low, pulled up too sharply thereby stalling the airplane."
Crew (all killed):
2nd Lt Emmett F. Hogue (pilot, from Jackson, Mississippi)
2nd Lt James Thompson (co-pilot, from Marshfield, Missouri)
SSgt John Poythress (radio operator, from Farmville, North Carolina)
Pvt Donald L Delay (engineer, from Gardner, Massachusetts)
Pvt William A Ochs (engineer, from Newton, Illinois)
Pvt Charles Hill (gunner, from Memphis, Tennessee)
Cpl Richard Delay (passenger, from Gardner, Massachusetts)
Donald and Richard Delay were brothers.
Sources:
http://www3.gendisasters.com/alabama/14173/whistler-al-medium-bomber-crash-june-1942 "Fatal Army Air Forces Aviation Accidents in the United States, 1941-1945. Volume 1, January 1941-June 1943", by Anthony J. Mireles, ISBN 0-7864-2788-4, page 95
http://www.aviationarchaeology.com/src/AARmonthly/Jun1942.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistler,_Alabama http://wikimapia.org/#lang=fr&lat=30.756667&lon=-88.103056&z=12&m=w Revision history:
Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
27-Jan-2020 11:28 |
Uli Elch |
Updated [Total fatalities, Location, Source, Narrative] |
28-Jan-2020 16:37 |
Uli Elch |
Updated [Operator, Location] |
03-Jun-2020 10:03 |
Laurent Rizzotti |
Updated [Time, Operator, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Phase, Source, Narrative] |
03-Jun-2020 19:46 |
Reno Raines |
Updated [Operator, Operator] |