1947 — Aug 16, USAF B17 runs out of fuel/crashes 50M off Barbers Point, Kalaeloa, HI–10
Compiled by Wayne Blanchard 10-12-2023 for upload to: https://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
–10 Aviation Safety Network. USAF B-17 fuel exhaustion/ditching 60M SW Hickam AFB, HI.
–10 Long Beach Independent, CA. “Plane Crash Kills U.S. Envoy to Japan.” 8-18-1947, p. 1.
–10 Oakland Tribune, CA. “Atcheson Air Crash Probed.” 8-19-1947, p. 2.
–10 Oakland Tribune, CA. “Atcheson Hunt Goes on, but Hope is Lost.” 8-20-1947, p. 2.
–10 Schmitt, Robert C. Catastrophic Mortality in Hawaii. 2-2-2009, p. 76.
Narrative Information
Aviation Safety Network, Flight Safety Foundation, Database, 1947:
“Date: Saturday 16 August 1947
“Time: night
“Type: Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress
“Owner/operator: United States Army Air Force (USAAF)
“Registration: 43-39465
….
“Fatalities: Fatalities: 10 / Occupants: 13
….
“Location: 69 mi SW of Hickam AFB, Oahu, HI – USA
“Phase: En route
“Nature: Military
“Departure airport: Tokyo
“Destination airport: Honolulu
“Narrative: Ditched due to fuel exhaustion. Three survivors picked up by destroyer
Rowan. Airplane did not stop at the routine halting place at Johnston Island for unknown reasons. One civil passenger (George Atcheson).”
Schmitt: “August 16, 1947: Ten of the 13 persons in an Air Force B-17, including Ambassador George Atcheson, Jr., died in a crash 50 miles from Barbers Point while on a flight from Kwajalein to Hickam.”[1] (Schmitt, Robert C. Catastrophic Mortality in Hawaii. 2-2-2009, p. 76.)
Newspapers
Aug 17, Independent News Service: “Pearl Harbor, Aug. 17. (INS) George Atcheson Jr., Gen. Douglas MacArthur s chief political advisor, and nine other men were presumed to have lost their lives today when an army bomber, its fuel exhausted, plunged into the ocean off Hawaii….Col. H. P. Huglin….one of General MacArthur’s top G-3 officers and one of a party of four en route to Washington on a mission separate from Atcheson’s, was…[one of three survivors].” (Long Beach Independent, CA. “Plane Crash Kills U.S. Envoy to Japan.” 8-18-1947, p.1.)
Aug 17, INS: “Pearl Harbor, Aug. 17. (INS). Col. H. P. Huglin of Fairfield, Iowa, survivor of the ill-fated plane crash that brought death to George Atcheson Jr. today, said he last saw the American diplomat sitting in the plane, smiling, as the plane was about to hit the water….Huglin said that at the time he noticed Atcheson, chairman of the allied council for Japan, sitting in his seat approximately three seats from the escape hatch after the three minute warning that the plane was to ditch had been given.
“He said the pilot still made every attempt to make a successful landing even at that late moment but the sea was extremely rough and the wind blowing at a 20 knot speed. Huglin was quoted as saying the plane broke up soon after it hit the water and that no papers were saved nor valuables recovered. Atcheson was en route to Washington for important far eastern conferences, presumably in connection with the Japanese peace treaty.
“Huglin said he got out of the plane but he still doesn’t know how or at what moment. He added that other men besides the three rescued got out of the plane alive but he did not know how many.
“Captain Gano…commander of destroyer squadron 5…said that Capt. P. L. Ryder of Ponca City, Okla., the plane’s navigator and one of the three survivors, has a broken arm and other injuries, and Colonel Huglin has face and hand lacerations and a wrenched back, but the two were otherwise okay. However, Corporal Holland, the third survivor, was badly injured and his condition was listed as critical.” (Long Beach Independent, CA. “Plane Crash Survivor Tells Last Minutes.” 8-18-1947, p. 16.)
Aug 18: “Honolulu, Aug. 18. — Why the pilot of the Army plane which crashed 85 miles west of Pearl Harbor Saturday midnight with Ambassador George Atcheson and 12 others aboard bypassed Johnston Island on his flight here from Tokyo remained a mystery today as the Navy continued its search for possible survivors.
“Johnston Island is a regular fueling stop on the Tokyo-Honolulu run, but the pilot, believed to have been Capt. K. R. Still, failed to stop there. His plane crashed after he radioed that his fuel, supply was running low. One Tokyo source suggested that the pilot may have bypassed the little island because poor weather made it too difficult to find.
Fuel Low
“‘I have 25 minutes to the island and have 20 minutes’ fuel,’ the pilot of the converted Flying Fortress radioed a few minutes before the crash-landing. The radio log of the Navy’s Hawaiian Sea Frontier Command showed the tower advised him ‘your position is 100 miles from Oahu, 60 degrees true (approximately West) from Barber’s Point, Oahu.’ ‘Impossible to make Oahu,’ the pilot responded. And, at brief intervals, came these later messages from the plane: ‘Number three engine out, at 2200 feet altitude.’ ‘Number two and three engines dead at 1400 feet. Losing altitude.’ ‘I’d better go ahead and sit down (crash land) while I have power from two engines.’ ‘It’s time for me to hit the water now.’
“Within minutes, radar operators on Oahu were directing 36 search planes on carefully-charted, parallel courses across the area, while a half-dozen surface craft steamed toward the scene.
“The Coast Guard cutter Hermes rescued the three survivors Sunday morning, transferring them by small boat to the destroyer Rowan for the 85-mile trip to Pearl Harbor.
Sharks In Water
“‘There were sharks in the water,’ reported Lieut. Kenneth Peterson, Long Beach, Calif., skipper of the Hermes. He said bright souvenir kimonos and other articles passengers had brought from Japan littered the rough water. Colonel Huglin, interviewed by radio and again when the Rowan reached Pearl Harbor, said ‘I believe the plane may have broken into several parts, for it sank quickly. . . I don’t know how I got out’.” (Oakland Tribune, CA. “Mystery Remains in Fatal Flight of Army Plane.” 8-18-1947, p. 4.)
Aug 19, Associated Press: “Honolulu, Aug. 19. – (AP) – The Pacific plane crash which left five known dead and five presumed dead, including Ambassador George Atcheson Jr., was described by airmen here today as a tragic accident caused by a combination of human error and mechanical failure. Who, if anyone, is to blame will be officially decided in an immediate investigation ordered by Gen. Carl Spaatz, Army Air Forces commander. Fliers meanwhile based their unofficial judgment of both human error and mechanical failure on this confirmed sequence of events:
“The converted B-17 bomber left Tokyo last Friday. It landed at Guam and ground crews there removed a faulty engine, replacing it with another. The pilot, Capt. K. R. Still took the plane up for a three-hour test flight, and the 20th Air Force in Guam subsequently reported it in ‘top condition.’
Engine Not Checked
“The flight continued across 1200 miles of ocean to Kwajalein, in the Marshall Islands. It was a comparatively short hop, and there was plenty of gasoline left when the plane landed there, the navigator, Capt. T. L. Rider, reported. In fact, things were going so well that the new engine was not checked, nor was the gasoline consumption.
“The plane took off from Kwajalein Saturday after refueling – carrying a total of 3190 gallons of gasoline, sufficient for more than 15 hours flight, Rider said. The Kwajalein-Oahu (Honolulu) flight normally requires about 12 hours.
“As the plane headed east it drove into a 10-mile headwind. Captain Still did not stop at little Johnston Island, 715 miles southwest of Oahu, he radioed the Johnston tower that he had enough fuel left for eight hours’ flight – which would have been more than ample to reach Honolulu’s Hickam Field. Then things began to go wrong.
Wrong In Position
“The sea-air rescue center here estimated the ship actually was a little farther from Oahu than its pilot had believed; and the headwinds were getting stronger. They ranged up to 21 miles an hour – nothing unusual, but placing a heavier drain upon the fuel supply.
“Rider said the new engine seemed to be eating too much gasoline, and the pilot, he related, believed his gasoline gauges must be wrong. As midnight neared, the pilot asked the Oahu radio control center for a fix on his position; he reported he was 25 minutes out and had only 20 minutes’ fuel. The Hawaiian sea frontier radio center estimated, however, that the plane was making only 150 miles an hour against the winds, and that it was then 110 miles out.
“The new engine ‘went out’ shortly, said Rider. Then another engine quit, and finally a third, while the plane lost altitude rapidly.
Ditching Goes Wrong
“Even the ditching (setting down at sea) went wrong, said the survivors. In the pitch black night, a wing hit the waves first. Then, as Rider said, ‘the plane started to catapult and cartwheel.’
“Rider was one of the three who escaped but he has no idea how. Also surviving were Col. Harvey Huglin, Fairfield, Iowa, and Sgt. L. C. Holland, Colmesneil, Tex., who was later identified in an Army announcement in Tokyo as Cpl. Travis J. Holland of Akron, Ohio. The latter survivor was in a coma.” (Oakland Tribune, CA. “Atcheson Air Crash Probed.” 8-19-1947, p. 2.)
Aug 20, AP: “Honolulu, Aug. 20. — (AP) – The Navy announced today the search for some trace of Ambassador George Atcheson Jr. would be continued several days although it has abandoned hope of finding him alive.
“The Hawaiian Sea Frontier’s announcement coincided with a promise by Brig. Gen. Frederick V. H. Kimble to ‘go all the way back to Tokyo’ if necessary to find out the cause of the plane crash in which Atcheson and nine others perished.
“The Navy said the intense phase of the search had ended, but that air and surface patrols would be maintained — probably for the rest of the week. A naval officer said, about the only hope remaining is that Atcheson’s body would float to the surface and be recovered.
“Kimble. Army air inspector, arrived by plane yesterday to investigate the crash. The converted B-17 bomber, its gas tanks empty, plunged into the sea about 100 miles west of Honolulu Saturday midnight with 13 aboard. Three were rescued and five bodies recovered.” (Oakland Tribune, CA. “Atcheson Hunt Goes on, but Hope is Lost.” 8-20-1947, p. 2.)
Aug 22, AP: “Honolulu, Aug. 22. – (AP) – The search for Ambassador George Atcheson, Jr., and four others missing since a plane crash at sea last Saturday night, was abandoned today, the Hawaiian Sea Frontier said. ‘Further search is believed useless,’ Captain Walter S. Mayer, of the Sea Frontier reported to Admiral Louis E. Denfeld, commander of the Pacific fleet.” (Joplin Globe, MO. “Search for Atcheson and 4 Others Abandoned.” 8-23-1947, p. 3., col. 1.)
Sources
Aviation Safety Network, Flight Safety Foundation, Database, 1947. USAF B-17 fuel exhaustion and ditching 60M SW Hickam AFB, Oahu, HI, 16 August 1947.
Accessed 10-12-2023 at: https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/98381
Long Beach Independent, CA. “Plane Crash Kills U.S. Envoy to Japan. MacArthur Aide Dies in Sea with 9 Others.” 8-18-1947, p. 1. http://newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=45094406
Oakland Tribune, CA. “Atcheson Air Crash Probed.” 8-19-1947, p. 2. Accessed 10-9-2012 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=33913817
Oakland Tribune, CA. “Atcheson Hunt Goes on, but Hope is Lost.” 8-20-1947, p. 2. Accessed 10-9-2012 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=33913841
Schmitt, Robert C. Catastrophic Mortality in Hawaii. 2-2-2009, 86 pages. Accessed 9-20-2012 at: Catastrophic Mortality in Hawaii – eVols – University of Hawaii. Accessed at: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CB4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fevols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu%2Fbitstream%2Fhandle%2F10524%2F150%2FJL03074.pdf%3Fsequence%3D2&ei=UPSvVK2bLoO4yQTO74L4DA&usg=AFQjCNHER9A57xAr6d0m9mJcnsc4F2Z8Gg&bvm=bv.83339334,d.aWw
[1] Cites: Honolulu Star Bulletin (HSB), Aug. 18, 1947, p. 1; HSB, Aug. 19, 1947, p. 4.