1941 – Jan 4, US Navy transport R2D-1 approach crash, White Mt. 35m E San Diego, CA–11
Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 10-1-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
–11 AP. “Rescue Party Finds Navy Plane Crashed on Peak…” Oakland Tribune, 1-6-1941, p. 5.
–11 U.P. “Navy Plane, 11 Aboard, Lost; Crash Reported.” Oakland Tribune, CA. 1-5-1941, p1.
–11 U.S. Dept. Navy. “Casualties: US Navy…Marine Corps Personnel Killed and Injured…”
Narrative Information
U.S. Navy: “Twin-engine transport plane R2D-1, which had rescued four crewmen who had bailed out of PBY on 2 Jan., crashed and burned while trying to land at San Diego. Four officers and three enlisted men of the R2D-1 and the four PBY crew all died in the crash. 4 Jan. 1941.” (U.S. Dept. Navy. “Casualties: US Navy…Marine Corps Personnel Killed and Injured…”)
Jan 5, United Press: “San Diego, Jan. 4. – (U.P.) – The Navy announced tonight that a big Douglas Navy transport plane with 11 men aboard returning rom Big Springs, Tex., with survivors of a Navy plane’s forced landing in a shallow Texas lake, is missing and overdue at the North Island Air Base. The Navy said the plane was due here at 5:45 tonight. It was unreported at 10:30 p.m.
“Navy men investigated a report a plane crashed tonight in an isolated spot 40 miles east of San Diego….Guy Haptonstall, a rancher near Barrett, 40 miles east of here, told the sheriff’s office he believed he saw an airplane crash about three miles from his home.
“A Navy searching party and officers from the sheriff’s office rushed to the Haptonstall Ranch to investigate. The Haptonstall Ranch is in a brushy, mountainous area.
“The Navy released the list of names of men aboard the missing plane:
Pilot Lieut-Commdr. J. H. Gowan.
Co-pilot, D. E. Ferguson, aviation chief machinists’s mate.
- Magee, aviation’s mate, first class.
- R. Naylor, radioman first class.
Passengers –
Lieut.-Commdr. StephenB. Cook,
Lieut. V. S. Gaulin;
Lieut. J. M. Flemming, U.S. Naval Medical Corps.
- S. Neff, aviation chief machinists mate;
Frank Recke Jr., aviation machinists’s mate first class;
- Perry, radioman first class;
- J. Hughes, radioman first class.
“Neff, Rocke, Perry and Hughes were the men who parachuted from the Naval patrol bomber caught in a snowstorm near Big Springs, Tex., Friday. Cooke, Gaulin and Flemming were members of a board of investigation which made an inquiry into the emergency landing.
“Lieut. Murray Hanson, pilot, and Ensign Robert B. Clark, co-pilot, who set the big bombing plane down in Texas after instructing their five companions to bail out, were not aboard the missing plane. Neither was the body of W. F. Percich, one of the parachutists who was killed when his chute strigs snapped. Percich was the sole fatality in the mishap…” (U.P. “Navy Plane, 11 Aboard, Lost; Crash Reported.” Oakland Tribune, CA. 1-5-1941, p.1.)
Jan 6, AP: “San Diego, Jan. 6. – (AP) – Civil and naval officials poling through the scattered wreckage of a $120,000 Navy transport plane, asserted today that, had the big ship been flying 20 feet higher, it would have cleared the rugged Mother Grundy range and reached its destination, only 20 miles away, with all occupants safe. The Navy arranged for an official investigation of the crash that killed everybody aboard, including four who had escaped death only last Thursday in a Texas bomber mishap.
“Civilian aviation observers generally blamed weather conditions. A low ceiling and dense fog made flying conditions hazardous in the area, 35 miles southeast of here, and reports of neighboring ranchers led to a belief the pilot might have got off his radio beam.
“Residents of the Simpson ranch two miles from White Mountain, the crash scene, said they heard a plane being ‘gunned’ to gain altitude a few moments before they heard an explosion. The craft struck just 20 feet below the ridge, exploded and burned.
“Army cavalrymen, sailors and CCC boys aided in the seven-hour task of carrying the victims, wrapped in blankets, down the mountain through sagebrush 10 feet high in places….” (AP. “Rescue Party Finds Navy Plane Crashed on Peak Barely 20 Feet From Safety; Weather Blamed for Tragedy.” Oakland Tribune, 1-6-1941, p. 5.)
Sources
AP (Associated Press) “Rescue Party Finds Navy Plane Crashed on Peak Barely 20 Feet From Safety; Weather Blamed for Tragedy.” Oakland Tribune, 1-6-1941, p. 5. Accessed 10-1-2024 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/oakland-tribune-jan-06-1941-p-5/
U.P. (United Press). “Navy Plane, 11 Aboard, Lost; Crash Reported.” Oakland Tribune, CA. 1-5-1941, p.1. Accessed 10-1-2024 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/oakland-tribune-jan-05-1941-p-1/
United States Department of the Navy, Naval Historical Center. “Casualties: US Navy and Marine Corps Personnel Killed and Injured in Selected Accidents and Other Incidents Not Directly the Result of Enemy Action.” Washington, DC: Washington Navy Yard. Accessed at: http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/NHC/accidents.htm