1946 — Dec 10, USMC R5C-1 Transport flies into So. Tahoma Glacier, Mt. Rainier, WA– 32
Compiled 11-4-2023 by Wayne Blanchard for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
–32 Baugher. US Navy and US Marine Corps BuNos Third Series (30147 to 39998).
–32 Gero. Military Aviation Disasters: Significant Losses Since 1908. 1999, 42.
–32 McClary, D. “A Curtic Commando R5C transport plane crashes into Mount Rainer…” 7-9-2006.[1]
–32 McNair-Huff, Rob and Natalie. Washington Disasters… 2006, p. 120.
Narrative Information
Baugher: “39528 (MSN 26715/CU355, ex USAAF 42-3582, VMR-152) crashed into South Tahoma Glacier on Mt. Rainier, WA in bad weather Dec 10, 1946 while in route from San Diego, California to NAS San Point, Seattle, Washington. Wreckage not found until July 1947. 32 killed. Wreckage and bodies are still there as recovery was deemed to be too risky…” (Baugher. US Navy and US Marine Corps BuNos Third Series (30147 to 39998).)
Gero:
“Date: 10 December 1946 (time unknown)
“Location: Southern Washington, US
“Operator US Marine Corps
“Aircraft type: Curtiss-Wright R5C-1 (39528)[2]
“The twin-engine transport, carrying 32 American servicemen (29 passengers and a crew of three), vanished during a domestic interstate flight originating at Miramar Naval Air Station, near San Diego, California, and destined for Sand Point Naval Base, at Seattle. In the last radio transmission from 39528, received at 16:16 local time, the pilot reported being at a position of 30 miles (50km) south of the airport serving the town of Toledo, about 30 minutes flying time from his destination and at a height of 9,000ft (2,700m).[3] He also reported picking up ice, and asked permission to fly 500ft (150m) above the overcast. An attempt to contact the R5C 20 minutes later was unsuccessful. Darkness was falling at the time, and strong winds, in excess of 40 knots, would have been blowing out of the north-west at its cruising altitude: Despite an extensive search over the wooded, mountainous terrain, no trace of the aircraft was found, and due to the lack of evidence, no determination could be made as to the cause of its disappearance. Significantly, 39528 had not been equipped with deicer boots.” (Gero 1999, 42-43.)
McNair-Huff, Rob and Natalie. Washington Disasters… 2006.
“…one of the six transport planes heading to the Sand Point Naval Station in Seattle….The six planes left San Diego late in the morning. As they flew north, the weather degraded. The torrential rains and winds that gusted up to 70 miles per hour buffeted the planes so hard that four turned back near the Oregon-Washington border and sought refuge at Portland.[4] At 4:13 p.m., [pilot] Reilly radioed to the Toledo station in southwest Washinton. He reported that ice was forming on the wings and visibility was so poor that he was flying by instruments alone. He asked to climb to 9,000 feet in order to fly above the weather. According to his calculations and his flight plan, he was about 30 miles south of the Toledo station and less than an hour from landing at Sand Point.
“Unfortunately what Reilly did not know was that the fierce winds he’d been flying through since Salem, Oregon, had blown him 63 miles east, far off course, and in direct line with the summit of Mount Rainier. Even if the plane had climbed to 9,000 feet as Reilly had requested, it was not high enough to avoid the 14,410-foot-high mountain. Reilly’s 4:13 p.m. call was the last time the plane was heard from….
“On the morning of July 24…[park] rangers were joined by experienced guides who worked for the park service and a team of navy personnel trained in Mountaineering….Late in the afternoon, the searchers reached their sad goal and confirmed that the debris strewn across the glacier was indeed that of the missing plane. …From what the search party discovered, they guessed that the plane crashed head-on into the 8,000-foot cliff and then violently dropped back onto the glacier, scattering debris over a quarter-mile-wide swath. South Tahoma Glacier is riddled with deep crevasses, some large enough that they could hold an entire plane. Due to the dangerous condition and steep terrain, none of the experience climbers thought there was a safe way to retrieve the bulk of the wreckage or the bodies of the dead soldiers…
“….Eventually…searchers found the decomposing bodies. They extracted eleven of the bodies, but the rest were encased in ice or jammed in the nose of the plane, which was so twisted that removal was impossible. As they watched rocks and boulders fly off the glacier’s slopes while they contemplated their next steps, the men knew that trying to remove even one body could end in death to themselves or other would-be searchers. They lined up the eleven bodies they had found and buried them in snow before they headed off the mountain for good, carrying the personal belongings of only a few of the fallen soldiers to be returned to their families….” (McNair-Huff, Rob and Natalie. Washington Disasters: True Stories of Tragedy and Survival. Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot, 2006, pp. 119-128 and 189.)
Sources
Baugher, Joseph F. US Navy and US Marine Corps BuNos Third Series (30147 to 39998). 8-6-2012 revision. Accessed 11-4-2023 at: http://www.joebaugher.com/navy_serials/thirdseries4.html
Gero, David. Military Aviation Disasters: Significant Losses Since 1908. UK and Newbury Park, CA: Patrick Stephens Limited, an imprint of Hayes Publishing, 1999.
McClary, Daryl C. “A Curtic Commando R5C transport plane crashes into Mount Rainer, killing 32 R.S. Marines, on December 10, 1946.” HistoryLink.org Essay 7820. 7-9-2006. Accessed 11-4-2023 at: https://www.historylink.org/File/7820
McNair-Huff, Rob and Natalie. Washington Disasters: True Stories of Tragedy and Survival. Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot, 2006.
[1] Contains a listing of the crew and the passengers at the end of the article.
[2] “The Curtis Commando (C-46/R5C) was the largest and heaviest twin-engine transport aircraft used by the U.S. military during World War II.” (McClary, Daryl C. HistoryLink.org Essay 7820. 7-9-2006.)
[3] “Although the plane had a service ceiling of 24,500 feet, it was restricted to flying at lower altitudes when hauling passengers because the cabin was unpressurized.” (McClary, Daryl C. HistoryLink.org Essay 7820. 7-9-2006.)
[4] The fifth landed safely in Seattle. (McClary, Daryl C. HistoryLink.org Essay 7820. 7-9-2006.)