1941 – Apr 7, USN Consolidated PBY-1 Catalina crash ~2M off Machipongo Inlet, VA– 10
Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 10-2-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
–10 AP. “Wreck of Giant Naval Bomber See Off Coast.” Winchester Evening Star, VA, 4-8-1941, 1.
–10 Aviation Safety Network, Database, 1941. USN Consolidated PBY-1 Catalina.
Narrative Information
Aviation Safety Network, Flight Safety Foundation. Database, 1941:
“Date: Monday 7 April 1941
“Type: Consolidated PBY-1 Catalina
“Owner/operator: US Navy
“Registration: 0134
“MSN: 33
“Fatalities: Fatalities: 10 / Occupants: 10
“Other fatalities: 0
“Aircraft damage: Destroyed, written off
“Location: Atlantic Ocean off Machipongo Inlet, VA – USA
“Phase: En route
“Nature: Military
“Departure airport: NAS Norfolk, VA
“Destination airport: NAS Quonset Point, RI
“Narrative: Aircraft crashed in the ocean while on a ferry flight.”
Newspaper
April 8, AP: “Norfolk, Va., April 8. (AP) – A wrecked naval bomber was sighted off Cape Charles, VA., today by searchers for a big naval patrol craft which has been missing since yesterday with ten men aboard. Naval authorities here said that it is the missing ship….
“The Cape Charles wreckage was sighted from a Navy plane. Coast Guard headquarters here said that one of their lifeboats, equipped with two-way radio, had reached the scene of the wreckage and had reported that no sign of life was visible in the area. The boat was from the Metomkin Inlet station. A Coast Guard plane flew over the scene and radioed that a yellow life jacket was floating near the wreckage.
“Messages received from the searchers did not say wheth3r they had seen any survivors of the two officers and eight enlisted men aboard the bomber when she took off from here for the naval air station at Quonset Point, R. I.
“The wreckage was sighted about two miles east of Great Machipongo inlet, off Hog Island, Cape Charles, VA. The broken bomber was sighted by a plane attached to a naval air carrier. The plane was not able to land. The pilot flashed word that he also sighted a life raft, but could not tell if anyone was on it.
“The Coast Guard immediately dispatched the cutters Dionne and Rush to the scene, as well as three lifeboats from stations near the scene of the crash.
“It is believed that the giant plane crashed into the sea after running into fog shortly after taking off.
“The Lakehurst (N.J.) naval air station reported that its biggest blimp, the TC14, was about 30 miles from the scene, and proceeding there at once.
“The missing flying boat was piloted by Ensign G. N. Blackburn, naval reservist, of Lenni Mills, Pa., with Ensign G. W. Marson, of Cambridge City, Ind., as co-pilot. The two were assigned to transfer the plane to Quonset Point after it had been based with the Navy’s utility squadron here for several months. With them on the flight were these enlisted men:
T. F. Mueller, chief photographer, San Diego, Calif.;
L. C. Luton, radioman, first class, Little Cypress, Ky.;
F. W. Crowe, aviation machinist mate, first class, Boulevard Heights, Md.;
L. L. Gurganus, radioman, second class, Parrish, Ala.;
W. Broadhurst, aviation machinist mate, third class, Albany, N.Y.;
F. McElrath, aviation ordnance man, third class, Newburgh, N. Y.;
B. A. Taylor, seaman, second class, Rutledge, Ala.’
A. P. Fasano, seaman, second class, Port Washington, L. I.
“….” (Associated Press. “Wreck of Giant Naval Bomber See Off Coast.” Winchester Evening Star, VA, 4-8-1941, pp. 1-2.)
April 9, AP: “Norfolk, April 8. (AP) – The body of one member of the crew of a naval patrol bomber which plunged into the sea off Great Machipongo Inlet Monday was brought into port last night by a destroyer which had been dragging the sea bottom for several hours….” (Associated Press. “Destroyer Finds Victim’s Body.” Winchester Evening Star, VA, 4-9-1941, p. 6.)
April 10, AP: “Norfolk, April 10. (AP) – the Navy and Coast Guard sought without success today to locate the wreckage and other bodies of the ten-man crew of a navy patrol bomber which crashed into the sea Monday, apparently at Great Machipongo Inlet off the Virginia Eastern Ashore.
“Two bodies and fragments of two or three others were found Tuesday by craft searching the area.
“….The bomber, en route to Quonset Point, R.I., disappeared after reporting by radio ten minutes after takeoff.
“The Destroyer Lansdale Tuesday night brought here the bodies of P. F. Mueller, navy chief photographer, of San Diego, Calif., and one other member of the crew. Identification of the second body was being attempted through fingerprints.” (Associated Press. “No Additional Bodies Found In Bomber Crash.” Winchester Evening Star, VA, 4-10-1941, Section Two, p.1.)
Sources
Associated Press. “Destroyer Finds Victim’s Body.” Winchester Evening Star, VA, 4-9-1941, p. 6.
Accessed 10-2-2024 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/winchester-evening-star-apr-09-1941-p-6/
Associated Press. “No Additional Bodies Found In Bomber Crash.” Winchester Evening Star, VA, 4-10-1941, Section Two, p.1. Accessed 10-2-2024 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/winchester-evening-star-apr-10-1941-p-9/
Associated Press. “Wreck of Giant Naval Bomber See Off Coast.” Winchester Evening Star, VA, 4-8-1941, pp.1-2. Accessed 10-2-2024 at:
Aviation Safety Network, Flight Safety Foundation. Database, 1941. USN Consolidated PBY-1 Catalina crash off Machipongo Inlet VA, April 7. Accessed 10-2-2024 at: https://asn.flightsafety.org/wikibase/301212