1954 — May 5, off-course USN PBM-5 Seaplane crash, Sidewalk Mt., ~Carricitos, MX– 10

— 10 ASN. Accident description. US Navy Martin PBM-5 Mariner 6 May 1954…near Caricitas.
— 10 Baugher. US Navy…Marine…BuNos Third Series (50360 to 60009). 10-27-2011 rev.
— 10 Corpus Christi Times, TX. “Bodies of Crash Dead Returned…From Mexico…” 5-9-1954.
— 10 Corpus Christi Times, TX. “Seaplane Rescue News Bogs Down.” 5-7-1954, p. 1.
— 10 Corpus Christi Times, TX. “Searchers Bring Out…NAS Fliers Killed in Crash.” 5-8-’54, 1
— 10 NFPA. “Large Loss Fires of 1954.” Quarterly of the NFPA, Vol. 48, No. 3, Jan 1955, 304.
— 10 Oakland Tribune, CA. “Missing Navy Plane Sighted; 10 Feared Lost.” 5-6-1954, p. 1.
— 10 USCG. Coast Guard Roll of Honor: Aviators…Aircrews…Did Not Return… 2-22-2011.

Narrative Information

Baugher: “Martin PBM-5 Mariner…59106 (USCG) crashed into mountain ridge near Caricitas, Mexico May 6, 1954. All 10 aboard killed.” (Baugher. US Navy…Marine Corps BuNos Third Series (50360 to 60009). 10-27-2011 revision.)

National Fire Protection Association: “May 5, near Brownsville, Tex. (in Mexico) U. S. Navy, PBM, $250,000, 10 killed.

“Scant details are available on this accident which killed ten according to newspaper re¬ports. The Navy announced a PBM flying boat with ten aboard was missing on a flight from the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station during the night. The next day a search plane sighted the still burning air¬craft 90 miles southwest of Brownsville in Mexico.” (National Fire Protection Association. “Large Loss Fires of 1954.” Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association, Vol. 48, No. 3, Jan 1955, p. 304 within pp. 201-326.)

United States Coast Guard: “Date of incident: 6 May 1954.
“Names of personnel killed in the incident: LTJG Donald G. Teifer
“Air Station the aircraft and/or crew were assigned to: AIRSTA [Air Station] Corpus Christi
“Aircraft type and Coast Guard tail number…: Martin PBM-5 Mariner, U.S. Navy 59106
“Location of the incident: Mexico

“Description of the incident: The aircraft was on an over-water navigation training mission in the Gulf of Mexico. The pilot radioed a position report southeast of Brownville, enroute to Corpus Christi. No further contact was made. The aircraft impacted a ridge at the 3000-foot level near Caricitas, Mexico. After a massive search the wreckage was located. There were no survivors. Nine US Navy personnel also perished in the crash.” (United States Coast Guard. Coast Guard Roll of Honor: Aviators & Aircrews That Did Not Return… 2-22-2011 mod.)

Newspapers:

May 6: “Corpus Christi, May 6. – (AP) – The Navy said today that the wreckage of a missing PBM flying boat with 10 men aboard had been sighted 90 miles southwest of Brownsville in Mexico and there appeared to be no survivors. A Navy spokesman said the crashed plane was still burning. The plane had been missing since last night. It was based at the naval air station here.” (Oakland Tribune, CA. “Missing Navy Plane Sighted; 10 Feared Lost.” 5-6-1954, p. 1.)

May 7: “A rescue party was believed to be searching this morning for the bodies of 10 men who apparently died in the crash of a Naval Air Station seaplane in the jagged mountainous area of northern Mexico. Only two brief reports have come out of the remote area since the still burning wreckage of the big patrol bomber was sighted shortly after noon yesterday. The pilot who found the plane said there were no signs of survivors. And an NAS helicopter reported about 6:40 last night that it had landed near the crash scene and would attempt to reach the wreckage.

“The crash scene is about 120 miles southwest of Brownsville and about two miles east of the town of Carricitos, Tamaulipas, Mexico. There are no telephones in the nearby area and the distance from any radio relay facilities prevented the helicopter party from sending out a report. The report of the helicopter’s arrival last night was relayed by a circling plane. NAS said a plane would reach the area early this afternoon and relay further word from the helicopter.

“A radio equipped truck and ambulance from Harlingen Air Force Base left for the scene about 9
this morning and also, was expected to arrive early this afternoon. The truck and ambulance originally were to start out late yesterday.

“The PBM Seaplane from Advanced Training Unit 700 left NAS about 1 p. m Wednesday on an
over-the-water navigational training flight and was last heard from at 9 that night when, the pilot reported he was 75 miles east of Brownsville and heading inland toward Corpus Christi.

“Since the pilot ordinarily makes hourly position reports, it is believed that the crash occurred, between 9 and 10 p. m, Wednesday [May 5].

“By the pilot’s flight plan, he should have been back at NAS by about midnight Wednesday.

“When he was reported overdue, probably the biggest joint air-sea-land rescue operation ever launched for a local plane began. More than 30 planes were used, with the Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and Army taking part.

“The 10 men aboard the plane included the pilot, co-pilot, three student officers and a crew of five enlisted men. The pilot was Lt. Harold Jennings, 3234 Olson, and the co-pilot Lt. Jim Willis Martin, 4917 Kasper.” (Corpus Christi Times, TX. “Seaplane Rescue News Bogs Down.” 5-7-1954, 1.)

May 8: “A Mexican searching party that journeyed by horseback into the rugged mountainous area near Cruillas, Mexico early today brought out word that all 10 persons were killed instantly in the crash of a Naval Air Station seaplane Wednesday night. First official word on the fate of the 10 men came in a Caller-Times telephone call to Ciudad Victoria to Gov. Horacio Teran of Tamaplipas. The governor, who returned from the search about 9 this morning, said that the charred bodies were found near the top the mountain into which the big PBM crashed.

“Shortly after the telephone call, the Navy made its first radio contact with the helicopter that carried a rescue party to Cruillas Thursday afternoon. The helicopter party reported by radio to a
Navy plane circling over Cruillas that the bodies of the five officers and five enlisted men would be brought back to Corpus Christy late today.

“An NAS spokesman said the bodies reached Crusillas late this morning, where a group of ambulances and trucks from Harlingen Air Force Base awaited them. The bodies were to be brought to Harlingen by ambulance and were expected to arrive there about 4 p.m. An NAS transport was to fly to Harlingen to meet them. The helicopter party was expected back at NAS early this afternoon.

“The Navy and Air Force had tried repeatedly to make plane to helicopter radio contact to get some word on whether anyone survived the crash. But this was impossible until this morning because the helicopter was in Cruillas and the search party from it was off in the mountains at the
crash scene some 15 miles away. The nearest telephone is about 100 miles from the crash scene.

“During, the two-day interval the Navy and The Caller-Times received many telephone calls from families and friends of the 10 men, seeking word on their fate. As one official put it, the most tragic job of all was telling the callers that there was no word.

“Gov. Teran told The Caller-Times that the search party on horseback reached the scene of the crash on Sidewalk Mountain about 8 a. m. yesterday. The wreckage was scattered over a wide area. The governor said doctors accompanied the Mexican searching party, which apparently had set off for the crash immediately after hearing of it. The Mexican group approached the mountain from one side and the Navy rescuers, including the helicopter pilot, flight surgeon and an investigating officer, journeyed in from another side.

“Gen. Alejo Gonzales of the Mexican Army, from Monterrey, headed the Mexican searching party.

“The PBM left NAS Wednesday afternoon for a navigational training flight in the Gulf of Mexico. When it was reported over-due shortly after midnight Wednesday a giant search party of planes and surface craft was launched.

“The still burning wreckage was spotted near the top of the mountain shortly after noon Thursday. Somehow the pilot had wandered far off his course. Cause of the crash has not been determined.

“The plane, from Advanced Training Unit 700, was piloted by Lt. Harold Jennings, 33…With him were the co-pilot, three student officers and a crew of five enlisted men.” (Corpus Christi Times, TX. “Searchers Bring Out Bodies of NAS Fliers Killed in Crash.” 5-8-1954, p. 1.)

May 9: “A grim journey that began in the wilds of Mexico ended at the Naval Air Station yesterday for a Navy rescue party and the bodies of 10 plane crash victims they brought back with them. An R4D transport carrying them and the flight surgeon member of the rescue party and a helicopter with the other two members landed minutes apart at NAS round 2 p. m….

“The three members of the rescue party — Lt. Comdr. J. M. Gillin, Jr., Lt. G. M. Kinzer and Lt. Jim Wilson — looked haggard and worn after a three-day ordeal climaxed by climbing to the top of a 3,500-foot mountain to get to the bodies and wreckage of the PBM seaplane. They left NAS Thursday afternoon shortly after the burning wreckage of the big patrol bomber was spotted from the air about 17 miles south of Cruillas in the state of Tamaulipas….” (Corpus Christi Times, TX. “Bodies of Crash Dead Returned. Grim Journey From Mexico Ends at [NAS].” 5-9-1954, 1)

Sources

Aviation Safety Network. Accident description. United States Navy Martin PBM-5 Mariner… 6 May 1954…near Caricitas Mexico. http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19540506-1

Baugher, Joseph F. US Navy and US Marine Corps BuNos Third Series (50360 to 60009). Oct 27, 2011 revision. Accessed at: http://www.joebaugher.com/navy_serials/thirdseries6.html

Corpus Christi Times, TX. “Bodies of Crash Dead Returned. Grim Journey From Mexico Ends at Naval Air Station.” 5-9-1954, 1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=85830240

Corpus Christi Times, TX. “Seaplane Rescue News Bogs Down.” 5-7-1954, p. 1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=85830211

Corpus Christi Times, TX. “Searchers Bring Out Bodies of NAS Fliers Killed in Crash.” 5-8-1954, 1. At: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=85830231

Oakland Tribune, CA. “Missing Navy Plane Sighted; 10 Feared Lost.” 5-6-1954, p. 1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=43366249

National Fire Protection Association. “Large Loss Fires of 1954.” Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association, Vol. 48, No. 3, Jan 1955, pp. 201-326.

United States Coast Guard. “Coast Guard Roll of Honor: Aviators & Aircrews That Did Not Return…” 2-22-2011 modification. At: http://www.uscg.mil/history/AviationCasualties.asp