1951 — Aug 12, US Navy PB4Y-2 Privateer crash into mountain, Amak Island, AK — 12
–12 AP. “Alaska Bush Pilot’s Plane Being Hunted.” Corpus Christi Times, TX, 8-17-1951, 12.
–12 Kodiak Military History Museum. Kodiak Alaska Military History. “Crashes and Wrecks.”
–12 Liefer. Broken Wings: Tragedy & Disaster in Alaska Civil Aviation. 2003, p. 197.
Narrative Information
Kodiak Military History Museum: “1951 AUG 12….Aircraft PB4Y-2 Privateer BuNo 66298 Squadron VP-9 Wing CFAW-4 from NAS Kodiak crashed on Amak Island, 20 miles NW of Cold Bay. Action: Killed: [BWB: for clarity we break the following out from narrative text.]
Lt Roy Edwin Park, 31, Columbus, Ohio, pilot;
LtJg Robert Wilfred Conklin, 24, South Great Falls, Mont., co-pilot;
ENS Henry Howard Wood, 21, Denver, Colo., navigator;
Joseph Dale Witherspoon AN, 22, Fordtown, Tenn.;
William Stuart Wagner AN, 21, San Francisco, Calif.;
Bobby Enloe AN, 21, Houston, Texas;
Elnord Ellis Flinkfelt AN, 20, Pawtucket, R.I.;
Leonard Walter Sexton AD1, 30, San Jose, Calif.;
Edwin Francis Busby, Jr. AT3, 22, Lowell, Mass.;
Ronald Lee Hunt AM3, 21, Black Butte, Ore.;
Brooks Alton Williams AT1, 30, Chicago, Ill.;
Charles Wyalis Elkins AO3, 28, N.W. Linton, Ind.
[information also from The Kodiak Bear August 17, 1951. Wreckage sighted 15 August by navy PBY, pilot Lt A.M. Zakarian. 900 foot mountainside. USS Tillamook sent to investigate.]” (Kodiak Military History Museum. Kodiak Alaska Military History. “Crashes and Wrecks.”)
Liefer: “In 1951 a Navy PB4Y-2 Privateer crashed into a mountain [Amak Island] twenty miles northwest of Cold Bay, killing all twelve servicemen onboard.” (Liefer. Broken Wings: Tragedy & Disaster in Alaska Civil Aviation. 2003, p. 197.)
Newspapers
Aug 13: “Kodiak, Alaska (UP) — A Navy Privateer with 12 men aboard was reported missing today on a flight from Kodiak to Adak island, bringing to four the number of planes lost in the Northwest in the past three weeks. Lt. Frank Brink, public information officer at the Naval operating base here, said the four-engine plane was last heard from yesterday at 9:34 a.m. Alaska time. The plane reported its position at that time as 285 miles due west of Kodiak and said it had enough fuel to last until 10 a.m.
“Search planes covered the over-water flight route of the missing plane yesterday, but they were hampered by poor weather. Planes of the 10th Air Rescue squadron at Elmendorf Air Force base, Anchorage, stood by to take off as soon as possible. The plane was a PB4Y-2. It carried nine enlisted men and three officers, Brink said….” (United Press. “Navy Plane With 12 Aboard Missing in Alaskan Flight.” The Daily Review, Hayward, CA, 8-31-1951, p. 1.)
Aug 17: “Anchorage, Alaska, Aug. 17. (AP)….The wreckage of…a Navy patrol bomber with a crew of 12, has been found….Charred wreckage of the Kodiak-based Navy patrol bomber was found Wednesday [Aug 15] on lonely Amak Island, off the Alaska peninsula, about midway between Kodiak and Adak Island in the Aleutian chain. The PB4-Y-2 took off last Sunday from its home field on a routine flight to Adak. A ground party was due to reach the shattered bomber lat yesterday, but has not reported by radio….” (Associated Press. “Alaska Bush Pilot’s Plane Being Hunted.” Corpus Christi Times, TX, 8-17-1951, p. 12.)
Sources
Associated Press. “Alaska Bush Pilot’s Plane Being Hunted.” Corpus Christi Times, TX, 8-17-1951, p. 12. Accessed 1-1-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/corpus-christi-times-aug-17-1951-p-12/
Kodiak Military History Museum. Kodiak Alaska Military History. “Crashes and Wrecks.” Accessed 1-1-2018 at: http://kadiak.org/crash/index.html
Liefer, G. P. Broken Wings: Tragedy & Disaster in Alaska Civil Aviation. Blaine, WA: Hancock House, 2003.
United Press. “Navy Plane With 12 Aboard Missing in Alaskan Flight.” The Daily Review, Hayward, CA, 8-31-1951, p. 1. Accessed 1-1-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/daily-review-aug-13-1951-p-1/