5-11

lornajarrettblanchard November 30, 1978

— 11 Blanchard total for the Piper and the C-130 crashes.

Piper Cherokee, Albany GA:
— 5 Pharos-Tribune, Logansport, Ind. “Air Crashes Claim Eight in South.” 12-1-1978, 10.
— 5 Times News, Twin Falls, ID. “Body of fourth victim found.” 12-2-1978, A14.

USAF C-130, Cottageville, SC:
— 6 ASN. Accident descrip. USAF Lockheed C-130E Hercules, 56 km…W of Charleston, SC.
— 6 Baugher, Joseph F. 1968 USAF Serial Numbers. 1-10-2012 revision.
— 6 The Robesonian, Lumberton, NC. “Dead Airmen Found.” 12-5-1978, 9.

Narrative Information

Piper Cherokee, Albany Airport, Georgia:

Dec 1: “UPI…. Five people died Thursday night when their private plane crashed just short of the runway at the Albany, Ga….Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jack Barker said the Piper Cherokee Six aircraft, en route to Albany from Columbus, Ga., was attempting to make an instrument landing when it went down. Barker said the pilot and four passengers, whose identities were not immediately released, were killed. Officials said they believed there were two men, two women and a young girl on board. Barker said the pilot, who had filed flight plans to Orlando Fla. but changed them to stop in Albany, did not indicate that he was having trouble before the crash. He said the plane disappeared from air traffic controller’s radar about four miles southwest of the airport.” (Pharos-Tribune, Logansport, Ind. “Air Crashes Claim Eight in South.” 12-1-1978, p10.)

Dec 2: “….Dougherty County Coroner Chester Anderson Sr. said the victims were two men, two women and a young girl. The plane was registered to J. Sterling Carter of Indian Point, Ind., and based at Greentown, Ind. It was not known if Carter was aboard. The single engine Piper Cherokee was bound for Orlando, Fla., after a refueling stop at Columbus, Ga., when it went down Thursday night in fog which reduced visibility to about 200 feet.” (Times News, Twin Falls, ID. “Cargo Plane Crash. Body of fourth victim found.” 12-2-1978, A14.)

USAF C-130, Cottageville, South Carolina:

Baugher: “Lockheed C-130E-LM Hercules….10936 (c/n 382-4316) w/o Nov 30, 1978 when it crashed 36 mi W of Charleston, SC after being struck by lightning. 6 crew killed. (ASN).” (Baugher, Joseph F. 1968 USAF Serial Numbers. 1-10-2012 revision.)

Dec 1: “Cottageville (AP) — “It shook us good,” said Carrol Hathcock after an Air Force C-130 cargo plane crashed on this small Colleton County farm, killing at least three of the six crewmen. The others were listed as missing. Hathcock, an electronics technician who works the soybean and corn fields part-time, said he and his wife, Sybil, were in their mobile home when they first heard the plane. ‘I told her it was a plane, and about that time, it hit the ground, bursting into a giant ball of flame,’ he said. Mrs. Hathcock said she just had time to go to a window and watch the 97-foot plane go down.

“A spokesman at Charleston Air Force Base, about 25 miles away, said the cause of the crash was unknown. He declined to confirm a report that the plane was struck by lightning.

“A search for the missing crewmen, which had been hampered by low clouds and an almost constant rain, was called off Thursday night. It was expected to resume today.

“The crew was identified as

Capt. Samuel P. Eskew, 28, of Greenville, pilot;
Capt. Mark D. Greer, 27, of Kewadin, Mich., co-pilot;
1st Lt. Daniel K. Morris, 31, El Monte, Calif., navigator;
Staff Sgt. Bernie C. Finch, 28, Kingsville, Tex.;
Staff Sgt. Robert J. Cator, 26, Corona, Calif.; and
Airman 1st Class Robert Vanwinkle, 22, Denville, N.J.

“The Air Force said it had not identified the bodies of the three dead crewmen and did not know which men were dead and which were missing.

“The snub-nosed, four-engine aircraft was on a training mission from Pope Air Force Base, N.C., to Charleston. It was assigned to the 317th Tactical Airlift Wing at Pope. The C-130 is designed for transport duty in combat zones.

“The impact of the crash gouged a trench about 20 feet wide, 100 feet long and up to 12 feet deep in a small wooded area. Bits of the camouflaged green and brown fuselage were strewn over an area about the size of a football field.

“The Colleton County Sheriff’s Department said it had located part of the plane’s tail section at a school in Cottageville, a community of only a few hundred persons 35 miles from Charleston.” (Aiken Standard, SC. “3 Missing After Air Crash.” 12-1-1978, 3B.)

Dec 2: “UPI. The Air Force Friday recovered the body of a fourth victim of a C-130 cargo plane that crashed in a rainstorm, but military personnel trudging through muddy fields and hampered by continued foul weather could not locate the other two crewmembers.

“The discovery of a fourth body in the South Carolina crash Thursday raised to nine the number of known dead from two plane crashes in the South….” (Times News, Twin Falls, ID. “Cargo Plane Crash. Body of fourth victim found.” 12-2-1978, A14.)

Dec 5: “Charleston, S.C. (AP) — All six bodies of the crewmen aboard an Air Force cargo plane that crashed last week on a small farm have been recovered, the Air Force says. The C-130 Hercules went down Thursday afternoon near the Colleton County town of Cottageville, about 35 miles northwest of Charleston.

“Air Force and local law enforcement personnel had searched the woods and soybean fields near the crash site since then. Three bodies were recovered Friday. The Air Force announced Monday that the others had been found….

“Air Force officials are continuing their investigation into the crash at the site. Just before the crash, the pilot radioed that the aircraft had been hit by lightning and that he was having ‘control
Difficulties’.” (The Robesonian, Lumberton, NC. “Dead Airmen Found.” 12-5-1978, p. 9.)

Sources

Aviation Safety Network. Accident Description. United States Air Force, Lockheed C-130E Hercules, 1978, Nov 30, 56 km (35 mls) W of Charleston, SC. Accessed 9-25-2021 at:
http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19781130-0

Baugher, Joseph F. 1968 USAF Serial Numbers. 1-10-2012 revision. Accessed 3-5-2012 at: http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1968.html

Pharos-Tribune, Logansport, IN. “Air Crashes Claim Eight in South.” 12-1-1978, 10. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=109377451

The Robesonian, Lumberton, NC. “Dead Airmen Found.” 12-5-1978, 9. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=103850922

Times News, Twin Falls, ID. “Body of fourth victim found.” 12-2-1978, A14. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com