1951 — Nov 13, USAF C-82 “Flying Boxcar” crashes into Puy de Sancy Mt., France –all 36

— 36 Baugher. 1945 USAAF Serial Numbers. Sep 21, 2011 rev.
— 36 Daily Review, Hayward, CA. “News Highlights of 1951.” 12-26-1951, p. 4.
— 36 Gero. Military Aviation Disasters: Significant Losses Since 1908. 1999, p. 51.
— 36 Lowell Sun, MA. “Missing Plane Found; All Aboard Dead.” 11-15-1951, p. 1.
— 36 Titusville Herald, PA. “All 36 Aboard Dead in Debris of Big Plane.” 11-16-1951, p. 1.

Narrative Information

Baugher: “Fairchild C-82A Packet….57801 (c/n 10171, 11th TCS) crashed into Mt. Dore near Claremont-Ferrand, France Nov 13, 1951 due to navigational error. Total of 36 killed.” (Baugher. 1945 USAAF Serial Numbers. Sep 21, 2011 rev.)

Gero:
“Date: 13 November 1951 (c.13:00)
“Location: Near Besse-St. Anastasie, Puy-de-Dome, France
“Operator: US Air Force
“Aircraft type: Fairchild C-82A (45-58801A)

“All 36 American servicemen aboard (32 passengers and four crew members) perished in the crash of the twin-engine transport. Wreckage was located two days later, about 25 miles (40km) south-west of Clermont-Ferrand. The aircraft was en route from Rhein-Main Air Base, near Frankfurt, West Germany, to Bordeaux, France, when it struck a mountain peak at an approximate elevation of 5,600ft (1,700m), exploded and burned.

“Around the time of the accident, the meteorological conditions at Clermont-Ferrand consisted of a low ceiling, with 6/8 cumulus clouds at around 3,000ft (1,000m), a visibility of 25 miles (40km) below the overcast and a west-south-westerly wind of 12 knots. Winds of up to 30 knots had been forecast in the area from Dijon to Bordeaux. The pilot had been operating under an instrument flight rules (EFR) clearance with an assigned cruising height of 6,000ft (1,800m) when the C-82 crashed about 60 miles (100km) to the left of the proposed route. However, no details as to the suspected cause of the deviation were released by the US Air Force.” (pp. 51-52.)

Newspapers

Nov 13, Charleston Gazette: “Frankfort, Germany, Nov. 13 –(AP) – A U.S. Air Force plane carrying 34 persons was lost on a flight from Frankfort to Bordeaux today and was feared to have crashed somewhere in the mountains of central France. Rescue planes began a search centering southwest of Dijon, where the plane was last heard from. U.S. Air Force headquarters in Wiesbaden, Germany, said the plane was a C-82 transport carrying military personnel to the supply port of Bordeaux. There were 29 passengers and a crew of five aboard.

“At Clermont-Ferrand, France, residents of the Mont Dore area, a mountain resort 25 miles away, were reported to have heard something which might have been a plane crash, but the police there said they had no confirmation of an accident in the area….” (Charleston Gazette, WV. “U.S. C-82 Lost With 34 Aboard.” 11-14-1951, p. 1.)

Nov 15: “Chambon-Sur-Lac, France, Nov. 15 (AP) – Rescue crews today found the shattered snow-crusted wreckage of a missing U. S. Air Force transport plane 5000 feet up a mountain slope in southern France. All aboard were dead.

“American and French rescuers began bringing the battered burned bodies of the 36 passengers and crewmen — all U. S. military personnel — down the side of the mountain where the twin-engined flying box car crashed Tuesday. Rescue teams who fought their way up the snow and ice encrusted slope 250 miles south of Paris said most of the fire-scarred bodies were battered to bits by the crash. The plane itself appeared to be in one piece, with only small bits of wreckage scattered over an area of -some 80 square yards. Its two engines had buried themselves into the snow-crusted soil and the fuselage apparently had burst open. Half the twin tall assembly was burned, but the other part was intact.

“A team of French soldiers first sighted the wreckage just after dawn. They had trekked afoot and on skis all night, through a three-foot snow layer to reach the crash scene. Later they were joined by 10 U. S. Air Force rescue workers.

“The plane disappeared Tuesday on a routine a flight from Frankfurt to Bordeaux with 29 airmen, a U. S. soldier, and six crewmen aboard. It. crashed into a peak in the Mont Dore group some 20 miles south of Clermont Ferrand.

“Today the plane lay glistening in the sunlight, a few feet below the opening of a defile toward which the pilot apparently had headed. Chambon residents said the weather on Tuesday at the time of the crash was foggy, with visibility very limited.

“The airmen aboard were en route to Bordeaux where they were to open a motor pool as part of the gigantic U. S. supply line from the Atlantic across France to Germany. The soldier was returning from leave in Germany….” (Lowell Sun, MA. “Missing Plane Found; All Aboard Dead.” 11-15-1951, p. 1.)

Nov 15, Titusville Herald: “Chambon-Sur-Lac, France, Nov. 15 (AP)….The C-82 plane apparently missed by only about 50 feet a defile leading to a 5,000-foot-high plateau, where an emergency landing might have been made….The wreckage was fairly intact at the edge of the plateau, about 20 miles southwest of Clermont-Ferrand in southwestern France….

“The plane was flying in a southwesterly direction at the time of the crash and was perhaps 50 miles south of the direct flight line between Frankfurt and Bordeaux. It hit the Puy de Sancy mountain, which is part of the collection of peaks known as Mount Dore.” (Titusville Herald, PA. “All 36 Aboard Dead in Debris of Big Plane.” 11-16-1951, p. 1.)

Sources

Baugher, Joseph F. 1945 USAAF Serial Numbers. 9-21-2011 revision. Accessed 1-1-2012 at: http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1945.html

Charleston Gazette, WV. “U.S. C-82 Lost With 34 Aboard.” 11-14-1951, p. 1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=40095339

Daily Review, Hayward, CA. “News Highlights of 1951.” 12-26-1951, p. 4. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=47147648

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

Lowell Sun, MA. “Missing Plane Found; All Aboard Dead.” 11-15-1951, p. 1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=55332087

Titusville Herald, PA. “All 36 Aboard Dead in Debris of Big Plane.” 11-16-1951, p. 1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=104697705