1945 — Nov 9, USAAF C-47A AP approach crash at night in poor weather, Palermo Italy–24

Compiled Nov 25, 2023 by Wayne Blanchard for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/

–24  Aviation Safety Network. USAAF C-47 crash into mt. near Palermo AP, Italy, 9Nov1945.

–24  Gero, David. Military Aviation Disasters: Significant Losses Since 1908. 1999, p. 36. 

  Narrative Information

Gero, David. Military Aviation Disasters: Significant Losses Since 1908:

“Date:                          9 November 1945 (c.20:00)

“Location:                   Near Boccadi, Sicily, Italy [plane crashed ½ mile N of Palermo airport]

“Operator:                   US Army Air Forces

“Aircraft type:             Douglas C-47A (C-47A (42-24363) [MSN 10245, Aviation Safety Network]

“Operated by the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) and on a scheduled flight to Naples from Athens, Greece, the twin-engine aircraft slammed into a mountain and burned near Palermo. The 24 persons killed in the crash included two civilian passengers and a British serviceman; the rest of the victims were American military personnel, among them the aircraft’s four crewmen. The survivor, a US Army soldier riding as a passenger, was seriously injured.

“About an hour before the crash, the pilot radioed that he was lost. Some 20 minutes after its position had been re-established, 42-24363 flew over, then crashed approximately half a mile (0,8km) north [south?] of, Palermo airport. The crew many have seen flares fired from the ground and initiated a climb just before the impact. It was dark at the time, and the weather in the area consisted of an almost solid layer of strato-cumulus at 1,000ft (300m), with a light rain and a visibility of around 3 miles (5km0. The wind was out of the south-west at around 15 knots. According to the investigative report, the weather was undoubtedly the cause of the pilot becoming lost, which in turn led to the crash. The MATS division of the USAAF would subsequently discontinue night landings until the development of more sophisticated procedures and facilities.”

[Blanchard note: We questioned the description of the crash as ½ mile north of the Palermo Airport. If the airport in question is today’s Palermo airport, it is on the northern coast of Sicily and ½ mile north would put the plane in the water. There is a mountain ridge approximately ½ mile south of today’s airport – Monte Pecoraro. Thus either the airport in question is not today’s Palermo Airport, or the crash took place south of today’s Palermo Airport.]

Sources

Aviation Safety Network, Flight Safety Foundation, Database, 1945, p. 127. USAAF C-47 crash into mt. near Palermo AP, Italy, 9Nov1945. Accessed 11-25-2023 at:

https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19451109-0

Gero, David. Military Aviation Disasters: Significant Losses Since 1908. UK and Newbury Park, CA: Patrick Stephens Limited, an imprint of Hayes Publishing, 1999.