Date:	Tuesday 13 February 1951
Time:
Type:	Boeing KB-29P Superfortress
Owner/operator:	91st ARSqn /91st SRGp USAF
Registration:	44-83944
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 15
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	near Parsons, Labette County, Kansas -   United States of America
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	Barksdale AFB, Bossier City, Louisiana (KBAD)
Destination airport:	Barksdale AFB, Bossier, LA (KBAD)
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Bell-Atlanta B-29B-45-BA Superfortress 44-83944: Built under licence by Bell Aircraft Company, Marietta, Atlanta, Georgia. Delivered to the USAAF 19 May 1945. Assigned to 355th Bomb Squadron, 331st Bomb Group, 315th Bomb Wing.

Returned to the CONUS (CONtinentai US) November 1945. Modified to KB-29P at Boeing, Seattle, Washington. Returned to service, and Assigned to 91st Air Refueling Squadron, 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Group, at Barksdale AFB, Bossier City, Louisiana

Written off (destroyed) 13 February 1951: While cruising at an altitude of 11,000 feet, the aircraft became uncontrollable. All fifteen crew members were able to bail out but one of them (M/Sgt Downs) drowned on landing. The aircraft crashed in a field near Parsons, Kansas, and was destroyed. According to a newspaper report (see link #4)

"The B-29, part of the 91st Air Refueling Squadron and commanded by Capt. Ivon Francis Klohe, crashed after being enveloped in a “blinding snowstorm” over Parsons, Kansas, on Feb. 13, 1951. The airplane carried 15 men, all of whom parachuted from the crippled airplane, which crashed and burned in Labette County, in the southeast corner of the state.

Downs’ father, Master Sgt. Vernon H. Downs, the airplane’s crew chief, was the only crew member who died. The 40-year-old World War II veteran, at the time of his death the father of two sons and a daughter, drowned when his parachute carried him into a railroad oil slush pond, according to The Times’ account published the following day.

Downs and his family lived at 100 Third Street East on the base. The road has since been renamed.

Two airmen were injured and required hospitalization. They were:
Master Sgt. Jack F. Starkey
Master Sgt. John T. Clarkson.
Capt. Byrle L. Meeler, pilot;
Lt. William E. Waggoner, co-pilot;
Capt. Leroy W. Brown, navigator;
Capt. Thomas J. Watson, radio operator;
Staff Sgt. Niles J. Johnson, radio operator;
Sgt. James W. Sloan, radio operator;
Staff Sgt. Charles J. Cody, radio operator;
Technical Sgt. George L. Anderson, radio operator;
Technical Sgt. Durward D. Brombaugh, engineer;
Staff Sgt. Wilbur Owens, engineer;
Master Sgt. Clarence J. Gorski, engineer.

1. Air-Britain Aeromilitaria, September 2012, p. 109
2. [LINK NOT WORKING ANYMORE:http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1944_6.htm]l
3. [LINK NOT WORKING ANYMORE:http://www.baaa-acro.com/1951/archives/crash-of-a-boeing-kb-29p-45-ba-superfortress-in-parsons-1-killed/]
4. The Times from Shreveport, Louisiana 6 April 2015, Page A6 at https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/2015/04/06/history-paper-offers-answers-years/25330507/?from=new-cookie
5. http://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=11188

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
26-Aug-2011 12:08	Uli Elch	Updated [Aircraft type]
08-Jun-2013 11:23	Uli Elch	Updated [Operator, Total fatalities, Location, Phase, Source, Narrative]
19-Jun-2017 22:30	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
08-Feb-2021 18:20	Paco	Updated [Operator, Destination airport, Operator]