1944 – Dec 7, USAAF AT-18 transport takeoff crash/fire, Omaha Municipal AP, NE –all 17
Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 3-9-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
–17 Associated Press. “17 Persons Die in Air Tragedy.” The Lincoln Star, NE, 12-8-1944, p. 1.
–17 Aviation Safety Network. USAAF AT-18 takeoff crash, Omaha Municipal AP, NE, 12-7-1944
Narrative Information
Aviation Safety Network, Flight Safety Foundation, Database, 1944:
“Date: 7 December 1944
“Type: Lockheed AT-18 Hudson
“Owner/operator: United States Army Air Force (USAAF)
“Registration: 42-55732
“MSN: 414-7454
“Fatalities: Fatalities: 17 / Occupants: 17
“Aircraft Damage: Destroyed
“Location: Omaha Muni Airport, NE – USA
“Phase: Take off
“Nature: Military
“Departure airport: Omaha Municipal Airport, NE
“Destination airport: Tinker Field, Oklahoma City, OK
“Narrative: Twin-engined army transport plane/*Lockheed advanced trainer crashed
and burnt on take-off *during ferry flight. *14 men/ferry pilots and three women. The plane based at Cimarron Field, Oklahoma City, OK (now Clarence E. Page Muni AP)”
Newspaper
Dec 8, AP: “Omaha, Dec. 8 – (AP) – Seventeen persons, including 14 men and three women, were killed here yesterday when a two-engined army transport plane crashed and burned at the Omaha municipal airport, the investigating officer from the Lincoln army air field announced today. The investigating officer said the plane was based at Cimarron Field, Oklahoma City, Okla., and that all of the bodies had not been identified at mid-morning today.
“The crash was the greatest tragedy in the history of the Omaha airport and the loss of life was the first there since 1932.
“Orville Hannum, contractor to the Defense Plant corporation, at Yukon, Okla., gave out the following list of those presumed aboard the plane: [We break paragraph into lines.]
Robert E. Horn
Robert M. Kersey
Jack Adams Owen
Harry J. Roach
Harold D. Sanderson and
- Dick Tate, all of Oklahoma City;
Cornelius E. Callahan
Lawrence W. Eichmann, and
Charlie L. Price, all of Yukon;
Cecil GT. Helton, Woodward Okla.;
Margaret Marian Isbill, McGregor, Tex., and
Berna Mary Turner and
Virginia M. Hope…addresses were not immediately learned, all of whom were WASPS.
Bernard M. Lewis, Washington, D.C.;
Nathan G. Tate, Ireland, Tex., brother of I. Dick Tate, and
Jesse John Reece, Dublin, Tex.
“The ferry pilots were employed to fly surplus planes from one depot to another and were being returned to Cimarron Field after ferrying aircraft to various points.
“The plane, a Lockheed advanced trainer in use as a transport, carrying ferry pilots to Tinker Field, Okla, had come from Kansas City earlier in the day.
“Airport employes said the plane was taking off northwest along the northwest runway and that the crash occurred near the intersection of the north-south northwest-southeast runways. The plane exploded after it hit the ground, they said, and those aboard had no chance to escape.
“An employee at the weather bureau located at the airport said the plane went into the air ‘ at a steep angle’ and then ‘seemed to wing over.’ He said ‘no one got out.”
“Airport fire equipment was rushed to the scene of the crash, but fire equipment from the Omaha fire department had to be brought to the field before the fire could be put out.
“S/Sgt. Forest Foreman of New York City, who rode the plane from Kansas City to Omaha and left it here just before the crash, said he understood the pilot was to pick up army personnel here and return them to Oklahoma City.
“Major Dick Martin, public relations officer at Tinker field where the plane was headed, said it was carrying ferry pilots.”
Sources
Associated Press. “17 Persons Die in Air Tragedy.” The Lincoln Star, NE, 12-8-1944, p. 1. Accessed 3-9-2024 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/lincoln-star-dec-08-1944-p-1/
Aviation Safety Network, Flight Safety Foundation, Database, 1944. USAAF AT-18 takeoff crash, Omaha Municipal Airport, NE, 12-7-1944. Accessed 3-9-2024 at:
https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/237575