1946 — March 19, USAAF C-47 breaks-up in-flight, near Hobart Mills, CA –all 26
Latest edit 11-8-2023 by Wayne Blanchard for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
— 26 Aviation Safety Network. Accident Report, USAAF Douglas C-47B-50, March 19, 1946.
— 26 Baugher. 1945 USAAF Serial Numbers. Sep 21, 2011 revision.
— 26 Gero. Military Aviation Disasters: Significant Losses Since 1908. 1999, p. 39.[1]
— 26 Macha, G. Pat and D. Jordan. Aircraft Wrecks in the Mountains and Deserts of [CA]. 1997.
— 26 National Fire Protect. Assoc. “Large Loss Fires of 1946.” Quarterly, 40/3, Jan 1947, p.206.
— 26 Nevada State Journal, Reno. “Army Opens Inquiry in Sierra Crash.” 3-21-1946, p. 1.
— 26 Salt Lake Tribune, UT. “Army C-47 Explodes, Kills 26.” 3-20-1946, p. 1.
Narrative Information
Aviation Safety Network, Flight Safety Foundation, Database, 1946, p. 8:
“Date: Tuesday 19 March 1946
“Type: Douglas C-47B-50-DK (DC-3)
“Operator: United States Army Air Force – USAAF
“Registration: 45-1085
“MSN: 34355/17088
“First Flight: 1945
….
“Crew Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3
“Passengers: Fatalities: 23 / Occupants: 23
“Total: Fatalities: 26 / Occupants: 26
….
“Location: near Hobard Mills, CA (USA)
“Departure airport: Stockton Airport, CA…USA
“Destination airport: Ogden (unknown airport), UT, USA
“Narrative: Broke up in flight.”
Baugher: “Douglas C-47B-50-DK Skytrain….1085 (c/n 17088/34355) broke up in flight near Hobard [Hobart] Mills, CA Mar 19, 1946. 26 killed.” (Baugher. 1945 USAAF Serial Numbers. 9-21- 2011 rev.)
Gero:
“Date: 19 March 1946 (c.11:45)
“Location: Near Hobart Mills, California, US
“Operator: US Army Air Forces
“Aircraft type: Douglas C-47B (45-1085)
“The twin-engine transport crashed in the Sierra Nevada region, not far from the Nevada border, and all 26 American military personnel aboard (23 passengers and a crew of three) were killed. Having taken off earlier from Stockton Field in California, and stopped at McClellan Air Base, near the state capital of Sacramento, the aircraft had been en-route to Hill Field, located near Ogden, Utah, when it disintegrated at an approximate height of 7,300ft (2,200m) over Donner Summit. The separation of its right wing and empennage was followed by a more general break-up of the C-47 which scattered wreckage and bodies across the mountainous terrain over an area of some 2 square miles (3 sq km). No reason was given for the structural failure, but releasable findings of the investigation revealed no evidence of in-flight explosion or fire.” (Gero 1999, p. 39/)
National Fire Protection Association: “March 19, near Truckee, Calif. Aircraft. Over $250,000.
“An Army C-47 transport plane exploded in flight and crashed on a snow-covered mountain 11 miles from Truckee. Twenty-three Army passengers and 3 crew members were killed instantly. Rescue parties on skis and snowshoes reached the scene only to discover the wreckage and dead scattered over a half-mile area. No reason for the explosion has been released by Army authorities.” (National Fire Protection Association. “Large Loss Fires of 1946.” Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association, Vol. 40, No. 3, Jan 1947, p. 206 of pp. 179-248.)
Newspapers:
March 19: “Hobart Mills, Calif., March 19. – (AP) — The airways communication station at Donner Summit reported today a large airplane “exploded” in the air near here today, dissolved in pieces and buried itself in a Sierra snowbank. Rescue crews were dispatched at once on skis and snowshoes. Station officials said they had contacted about 10 minutes earlier a Denver-bound C-47 military transport in the area. The plane which crashed in the snow-storm, however appeared to be heading in the opposite direction, toward Sacramento.
“Mr. and Mrs. Clair Heater, caretakers at Hobart Mills, described the plane as ‘a big one.’ They said pieces of it fell in Hobart Mills, but the main body plunged down probably two miles distant.” (San Mateo Times, CA. “Plane Explodes Near Truckee.” 3-19-1946, p. 1.)
March 19: “Truckee, Cal., March 19 (AP) – Twenty-six army and navy men were killed Tuesday in a C-47 transport plane which strewed wreckage over a wide area of the crash scene in the snowy Sierras north of Lake Tahoe. Hours later, the wreckage of a B-29 army bomber was sighted near Livermore, 150 miles southwest of Truckee, with a probable loss of seven more lives.
“The C-47, flying from Stockton army air base to Denver, crashed in midmorning with some witnesses reporting it previously exploded aloft. It was flying from Stockton army air base to Ogden, Utah, and Denver, Colo. The plane was due at Hill field at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday….
“More than 20 of the bodies already have been counted at the C-47 crash scene, a heavily wooded sector difficult to reach….
“Some witnesses peering through snow from a distance thought they saw the C-47 blow up in the air, with the fuselage landing near Hobart Mills, seven miles north of Truckee….
“Capt. Harold Simer, commanding officer of the Reno, Nev., army air base, who made his way to the scene, said the right wing of the plane had not been found, perhaps having dropped away first. The plane evidently had spiraled down crazily, striking a tree which sheared off the left wing. The fuselage had struck the mountain slope and nosed over into the snow, breaking open.
“A huddled mass of bodies in the fuselage were so entangled first attempts to count them were unsuccessful. There were no signs of life when La Mar arrived. All were in army or navy uniform, and for the most part were intact. There was no fire.
“Charles Bennett, photographer for the Associated Press, said some 23 bodies had been counted before dusk fell — early in the wooded mountain hollow, with the heavy snow still falling steadily. The temperature was just about freezing. ‘The plane seemed to have broken in two,’ said Bennett. ‘The tail was about 150 feet from the fuselage and a wing had hit a tree. I don’t see how the plane got down without striking more trees.’
“The snow in the hollow was over an average man’s head. Capt. Simer once stepped into a hollow and disappeared from view floundering, until fellow-members of the rescue party on snow shoes extricated him.
“Hobart Mills, a ghost town with only a caretaker and his wife for residents, was the nearest point to which a vehicle could come unaided. Rescuers sent for tractors and snow plows. Night lights also were on the way so that the task of making a road among the big pines could go on in the dark. Army men produced a walkie-talkie set, so that communication soon wan set up with Hobart Mills….
“Hobart Mills, a ghost lumber town in which one family resides, is at 6500 feet elevation in the Sierras. The crash scene was one mile southwest of the town in a heavily wooded area covered by about eight feet of snow.
“Lt. Thomas M. Pickett at Stockton air field, said the plane, which left there Tuesday morning, cleared McClelland field at Sacramento at 10:15 a. m. and crashed about 11:45 a. m.
“In Sacramento, Col. B. R. Ertwine of McClelland field, said the 26 aboard comprised mixed army and navy personnel.
“The scene of the tragedy is about 10 miles west of Reno.” (Salt Lake Tribune, UT. “Army C-47 Explodes, Kills 26.” 3-20-1946, p. 1.)
March 21: (UPI) “Searchers, working in a blinding Sierra Nevada blizzard, yesterday afternoon recovered and identified bodies of 26 victims of the explosion and crash of a C-47 transport plane near Hobart Mills as army officials opened an official investigation of the tragedy.
“The plane, carrying 23 army and navy officers and enlisted men as passengers and three army men as crew members exploded in mid-air over Hobart Mills shortly before noon Tuesday. The plane was enroute from Stockton army air base to Denver when the crash occurred.
“The investigation was opened by a board of inquiry from the Stockton base. Meantime, the war department announced in Washington that Maj. Robert W. Schick and Maj. Gerald E. Crane of the army air transport command flying safety service had left their headquarters at Winston-Salem, N.C., for the scene of the crash…..” (Nevada State Journal, Reno. “Army Opens Inquiry in Sierra Crash.” 3-21-1946, p. 1.
Sources
Aviation Safety Network, Flight Safety Foundation, Database, 1946, p. 8. USAAF C-47B-DK breaks-up in flight near Hobard Mills CA, 3-19-1946. Accessed 11-8-2023 at:
https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19460319-0
Baugher, Joseph F. 1945 USAAF Serial Numbers. 9-21-2011 revision. Accessed 1-1-2012 at: http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1945.html
Gero, David. Military Aviation Disasters: Significant Losses Since 1908. UK and Newbury Park, CA: Patrick Stephens Limited, an imprint of Hayes Publishing, 1999.
Macha, G. Pat and Don R. Jordan. Aircraft Wrecks in the Mountains and Deserts of California 1909-1996 (3rd ed.). Info Net Pub, 1997.
National Fire Protection Association. “Large Loss Fires of 1946.” Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association, Vol. 40, No. 3, Jan 1947, pp. 179-248.
Nevada State Journal, Reno. “Army Opens Inquiry in Sierra Crash.” 3-21-1946, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=3664582&sterm=hobart+mills+plane
Salt Lake Tribune, UT. “Army C-47 Explodes, Kills 26.” 3-20-1946, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=91109091&sterm=hobart+mills+plane
San Mateo Times, CA. “Plane Explodes Near Truckee.” 3-19-1946, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=37284683&sterm=hobart+mills+plane
[1] We give the benefit of the doubt to the Gero report of structural failure as the cause of the crash, given his reliance on military investigations, as opposed to an explosion as noted in newspaper reporting and early periodicals. However, it should be noted that not all public versions of military accident investigation reports can be relied on as “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. See, for example, Alan E. Diehl’s, Silent Knights: Blowing the Whistle on Military Accidents and Their Cover-Ups (NY: Bristol Park Books, 2002). See also the story of the July 12, 1943 explosion at Eglin Air Force Base, Pensacola, Florida, originally reported by the military as an accident while removing tree stumps on base. Many years later it was uncovered that what actually happened was a mishap during the testing of a new explosive compound named Nitramon. In addition, any event involving nuclear or nuclear weapon components is likely to be shrouded in national security cloudiness.