Date:	Sunday 5 December 1943
Time:	09:22
Type:	Bell P-39Q Airacobra
Owner/operator:	327th FSqn /328th FGp USAAF
Registration:	44-2437
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	73 Alexander Ave, Daly City, California -   United States of America
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	San Francisco Municipal Airport
Destination airport:

Narrative:
On 5 December 1943 a formation of five P-39s of 327th FS, 328th FG took off from San Francisco Municipal Airport for a formation flying training mission. At one time the leader signaled the formation into left echelon and led the flight into a shallow turn. The flight was proceeding normally under the overcast when F/O George Criswell, 22, of Birmingham, Alabama, flying the number-three position, abruptly left the formation and flew over and dangerously close to the flight leader. The latter attempted to catch Criswell but before this could be accomplished, Criswell entered the overcast (at an altitude of 3,500 feet). While attempting to fly through the overcast, the pilot then went into a spiral and his P-39Q 42-20836 crashed at 0920 hrs into the side of a mountain in a restricted army area above Alexander Avenue, Daly City. Criswell was killed.

When Criswell broke foration, the number-four and five ships left also the formation and went on instrument. The number five was flown by 2nd Lt Wallace R Hopkins, 20, of Vermont, Illinois. At 0922 hrs his P-39Q 44-2437 crashed into a house at 73 Alexander Avenue, Daly City, and Hopkins was killed.

It was noted by the squadron operations officer that both pilots had not eaten breakfast prior to the flight, a violation of 4th A.F. Regulation.

According to newspapers reports, the fighter that fell on Alexander Avenue hit and destroyed an empty house. It had been vacant for some time but neighbors said that new tenants were to have moved in the day before. The houses of 40, 48, 52, 69 and 81 Alexander Avenue were damaged by flaming gasoline, flying debris and exploding ammunition damaged four other homes nearby, but none of their 20 civilian occupants was hurt, even if several missed being hit by flying missiles by only a matter of inches. The mangled body of the pilot was hurled completely across the street and onto the rood of 48 Alexander Avenue. A woman in the neighborhood opened her front door to see what had happened, and fainted dead away. A part of the pilot’s severed head had landed on her doorstep. The Daly City Fire department was first to reach the scene, and battled the blaze in the street and in the vacant house, where an open gas main also was flaming. The firemen were joined by Navy shore patrolmen and Army military policemen who went to work picking up ammunition that had scattered from the plane’s guns and had not yet exploded.

The accident brought immediate protests from residents that aircraft continually flew too low over this residential area.

"Fatal Army Air Forces Aviation Accidents in the United States, 1941-1945. Volume 2, July 1943-July 1944", by Anthony J. Mireles. ISBN 0-7864-2789-2
http://www.aviationarchaeology.com/src/AARmonthly/Dec1943S.htm
Oakland Tribune, 6 December 1943 (available online at https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7011763/daly_city_plane_crash/)
San Bernardino Sun, 6 December 1943 (available online at https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SBS19431206.1.2)
The Times from San Mateo, California, 7 December 1943 (available online at http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/38868370/)/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daly_City,_California
http://www.maplandia.com/united-states/california/san-mateo-county/daly-city/

2Lt. Wallace Reid Hopkins-1942, Santa Anna, CA. (July 20, 1923-Dec 5 1943).

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
16-Sep-2011 00:18	angels one five	Updated [Aircraft type, Registration, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Phase, Nature, Narrative]
16-Feb-2012 04:42	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Nature, Narrative]
25-May-2013 02:28	angels one five	Updated [Aircraft type, Registration, Operator, Narrative]
06-Dec-2017 15:14	Laurent Rizzotti	Updated [Time, Operator, Location, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]
30-Oct-2018 20:32	John D. Bybee	Updated [Photo]
13-Feb-2020 18:31	Iwosh	Updated [Operator, Operator]
30-Jan-2021 10:23	Anon.	Updated [Operator, Operator]