1958 — Sep 16 USAF B52 flight control failure, tail separation, crash, South St. Paul, MN– 7

— 7 Assoc. Press. “Co-Pilot Jumps, 7 Others Dead.” Winona Daily News, MN. 9-17-1958, p.1.
— 7 Cabot. “Survivor of B-52 Crash in IGH Speaks.” Southwest Review News, MN. 9-16-2008.

Narrative Information

Baugher: “Boeing B-52D-20-BW Stratofortress c/n 464017 crashed Sep 16, 1958 at Inver Grover Heights, MN near St Paul, MI, due to flight control failure which led to tail separation. Only one crewmember survived. Several local farm family members injured. There is a plaque on a piece of granite at the site commemorating the crash and the victims who lost their lives that night.” (Baugher. 1955 USAF Serial Numbers. 10-29-2011 rev.)

Newspaper

Sep 17, Associated Press: “South St. Paul (AP) – A B52 bomber on a training mission crashed in flames on a farm near here Tuesday night. The co-pilot parachuted to safety. Seven other crew members were missing and presumed dead. The giant plane, based at Loring Air Force Base, Limestone, Maine, missed the densely-populated Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan district by three miles, and an oil refinery by a similar distance.

“Exploding fuel tanks of the big plane fired the house, barn and outbuildings on the August Kahl farm three miles south of here. Eight members of the Kahl family, representing three generations, were hospitalized as a result of burns, three in serious condition.

“The plane had been in the air eight hours on a practice bombing mission to Minneapolis when it crashed.

“Capt. Jack Douglas Craft, 29, the co-pilot, parachuted to safety after he reported the big ship ‘started to come apart in the air.’ He was hospitalized suffering from shock, cuts and bruises. He could give no word of his seven fellow crew members. The ambulance driver who took Craft to the hospital said the co-pilot told him the plane was flying at 36,000 feet at exactly 600 miles per hour. ‘Then, all of a sudden, the plane started falling apart, he told me,’ Duane Zimmerman said. ‘It just broke up on us, he said. He was right by the controls and didn’t know what happened.’

“Witnesses reported seeing the plane streaking flame as it roared toward the ground. Aa it crashed, it erupted in a geyser of fire visible for 10 miles and accompanied by a thunderous explosion. Fuel spewing from the ruptured tanks fired several acres of brush and grass….

“Although B52s are designed to carry atomic weapons, Col. Edwin Ambrosen, commander of the Twin Cities Wold-Chamberlain Air Force Base, said the smashed plane carried no armament….” (Associated Press. “Co-Pilot Jumps, 7 Others Dead.” Winona Daily News, MN. 9-17-1958, p.1.)

Source

Associated Press. “Co-Pilot Jumps, 7 Others Dead.” Winona Daily News, MN. 9-17-1958, p.1. Accessed 1-26-2023 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/winona-daily-news-sep-17-1958-p-1/

Baugher, Joseph F. 1955 USAF Serial Numbers. 10-29-2011 revision. Accessed 1-14-2012 at: http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1955.html

Cabot, Danielle. “Survivor of B-52 Crash in IGH Speaks.” Southwest Review News, MN. 9-16-2008. Accessed at: http://www.southwestreviewnews.com/main.asp?SectionID=62&SubSectionID=275&ArticleID=3306&TM=56264.72