1944 — Aug 28, USAAF C54A landing crash/hit wires kills 5 on ground, Prestwick, Scotland–25
Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 3-28-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
— 26 Billings Gazette, MT. “Butte Army Nurse Killed in Crash.” 9-1-1944, 6.
— 26 Dunkirk Evening Observer, NY. “Lt. Col…Loeb…Killed…Crash in Scotland.” 9-11-1944
— 26 Huntingdon Daily News, PA. “26 Dead in Crash of Big Mail Plane.” 8-28-1944, p. 1.
— 25 airforcehistoryindex.org; accessed at: http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=
— 25 Aviation Safety Network. USAAF Douglas C-54A-1-DC, near Glasgow-Prestwick AP
— 25 Gero, David. Military Aviation Disasters: Significant Losses Since 1908. 1999, p. 29.
— 25 Wikipedia. “Prestwick.” 1-16-2012 modification.[1]
Narrative Information
Gero: “…c. 01:00 — No. 42-72171.
“Having completed a transatlantic crossing, the four-engine transport crashed and burned in a residential area while attempting to land at Prestwick airport. All 20 service personnel aboard (14 passengers and a crew of six) and five persons on the ground, including a 6-year-old girl who had been sleeping in her home at the time of the accident, were killed. The crash occurred in early morning darkness and conditions of poor visibility, but no further information was released as to its cause or related factors.” (Gero, David. Military Aviation Disasters: Significant Losses Since 1908. 1999, p. 29.)
Newspapers
Aug 28: “London, Aug 28. – Twenty-six persons were killed today when a plane, believed an American Sky Master mail plane from the United States, crashed into a dwelling at Prestwick, Scotland. The victims included seven crewmen, 14 passengers and five occupants of the demolished house. The plane was understood to have circled twice before it crashed. Prestwick is one of the world’s busiest air junctions and the eastern terminal of the Trans-Atlantic ferry route.” (Huntingdon Daily News, PA. “26 Dead in Crash of Big Mail Plane.” 8-28-1944, 1.)
Aug 31: “Butte, Aug. 31. – (AP) – Butte’s first woman casualty of the war and one of the first in Montana is Second Lieutenant Vivianna Cronin, 26, army flight nurse who died in a plane crash in Scotland, Sunday night – just a week after she was here to attend the funeral of her 14-year-old brother….Lieutenant Cronin had been on duty since invasion day June 6, helping in the removal of wounded from the Normandy beachhead. She requested transatlantic assignment in hope she would have a chance to visit her brother, Jackie, who had been ill more than a year. Her request was granted August 12, but the boy died before she arrived here August 16. She attended the funeral and left Butte on a return flight to her base in England August 21. Her parents expressed belief she may have been one of 26 killed when an army transport plane crashed into a house at Prestwick, Scotland.” (Billings Gazette, MT. “Butte Army Nurse Killed in Crash.” 9-1-1944, 6.)
Sep 2: “Washington, Sept. 2 (INS) — The war department made public Saturday the names of 21 persons killed when a C-54 transport plane crashed at Prestwick, Scotland, Aug. 27. The department said the plane was completing a transatlantic crossing from the United States when it struck wires a half mile from the Prestwick air base, turned over and crashed into near-by houses, killing some of the occupants. The passengers aboard the transport included Ernest Jesch, Fallon, Nev.” (Salt Lake Tribune, UT. “Nevada Airman Dies in Scotland Crash.” 9-3-1944, 13.)
Sep 3: New York, (UP) – Prof. Harry J. Berman, 42, former curator of the Harvard university mineralogical museum, was killed on Aug. 27 when the plane in which he was flying crashed into a house in Prestwick, Scotland, according to information from the war department received by business associates here. A nationally known mineralogist, Berman was on leave from Harvard for war work with the Reeves Sound Laboratories, Inc., and was conducting a technical study for the RAF and the American 8th and 9th air forces in Scotland when he was killed.” (Hayward Review, CA. “Harvard Mineralogist Killed in Crash.” 9-2-1944, 4.)
“Washington, Sept. 2. – (INS) The names of 20 persons who were killed when a…transport plane crashed at Prestwick, Scotland, on August 27 were made public late today by the war department….The crew, all employes of the air transport command, included Glen Golden, pilot, Ft. Worth, Texas. The passengers aboard the plane included Lt. Col. Norman A. L. Loeb and Lt. Col. Madison C. Schepps, Long Beach, Calif.” (Long Beach Independent, CA. “L.B. Officers Die in Scotland Crash.” 9-3-1944, p. 21.)
Sep 11: “Lieut. Col. Norman A. Loeb, a former Dunkirk resident and a graduate of West Point Military academy, was killed in an airplane crash at Prestwick, Scotland, last Sunday, according to word received by relatives here from the war department….Seven crewmen and 14 passengers in the plane together with five occupants of the demolished house lost their lives.” (Dunkirk Evening Observer, NY. “Lt. Col. N. A. Loeb is Killed in Plane Crash in Scotland.” 9-11-1944, 4.)
Airforcehistoryindex.org: U.S. Fatalities:
BERMAN, HARRY;
BIGOTTO, L.;
CRONIN, VIVANNA;
ERICKSON, GLENN K.;
FARLEY, WILLIAM C.;
FISSEL, JOHN E. JR;
FLEMMING, BRAXTON G.;
FORTENBERRY, HORACE J.;
GOLDEN, G.;
GORSKI, A.;
HOGSETT, BURT D.;
JESCH, ERNEST E.;
KIRK, THOMAS W.;
KRUSI, JOHN B.;
LOEB, NORMAN A.;
MCGREW, D.;
OGLESBY, B. S.;
SCHEPPS, MADISON C.;
SCOTT, A.;
VENABE, EUGENE R.;
Prestwick, Scotland civilian fatalities:
HANDYSIDE, ROBERT A.;
HASWELL, IRENE
KINNEAR, THOMAS;
MAITLAND, THOMAS GEORGE;
SNOWDEN, WILLIAM K.
(airforcehistoryindex.org; accessed at: http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=20503 )
Sources
airforcehistoryindex.org; accessed at: http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=
Aviation Safety Network, Flight Safety Foundation, Database, 1944. USAAF Douglas C-54A-1-DC crash near Glasgow-Prestwick Airport, 8-28-1944. Accessed 3-28-2024 at: https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19440828-2
Billings Gazette, MT. “Butte Army Nurse Killed in Crash.” 9-1-1944, 6. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=66127905
Dunkirk Evening Observer, NY. “Lt. Col. N. A. Loeb is Killed in Plane Crash in Scotland.” 9-11-1944, 4. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=36049450
Gero, David. Military Aviation Disasters: Significant Losses Since 1908. UK and Newbury Park, CA: Patrick Stephens Limited, an imprint of Hayes Publishing, 1999.
Hayward Review, CA. “Harvard Mineralogist Killed in Crash.” 9-2-1944, 4. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=47162842
Huntingdon Daily News, PA. “26 Dead in Crash of Big Mail Plane.” 8-28-1944, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=102191452
Long Beach Independent, CA. “L.B. Officers Die in Scotland Crash.” 9-3-1944, p. 21. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=49964809
Salt Lake Tribune, UT. “Nevada Airman Dies in Scotland Crash.” 9-3-1944, 13. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=90280296
Wikipedia. “Prestwick.” 1-16-2012 modification. At: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prestwick
[1] Notes 20 crew and passenger fatalities and 5 on-ground civilian fatalities, but provides no source citation.