1944 — Oct 8, USAAF B-29 goes out of control and crashes, near Love Field, Dallas, TX–15
Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 3-25-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
–15 Aviation Safety Network. USAAF B-29 crash 5M SSW Love Field, Dallas, 10-8-1944.
–15 Mireles 2006. Fatal Army AF Aviation Accidents…US…, V3, Aug 1944-Dec 1945, p. 936.
–14 AP. “14 Crewmen Killed In Texas Air Crash.” The Brownsville Herald, TX. 10-9-1944, p1.
Narrative Information
Aviation Safety Network, Flight Safety Foundation, Database:
“Date and Time: Sunday, 8 October 1944; 16:30 LT
“Type: Boeing B-29 Superfortress
“Owner/operator: 43rd BSqn / 29th BGp USAAF
“Registration: 42-6395
“MSN: 3528
“Fatalities: Fatalities: 15 / Occupants: 15
“Aircraft Damage: Destroyed
“Location: Texaco Oil Trank Farm, 5 miles SSW of Love Field, Dallas, Texas, USA
“Phase: En Route
“Nature: Military
“Departure airport: Pratt AAF, Pratt, Kansas
“Destination airport: Love Field, Dallas, TX
“Narrative:
“….Written off (destroyed) when crashed 8 October 1944. The aircraft was on a training flight from Pratt AAF, Pratt, Kansas. Crashed and burned near the Texas Oil refinery (TEXACO) oil tank farm, 5 miles from the heart of Dallas, Texas. All 15 crew listed as KIT (Killed In Training). The airmen killed were:
2nd Lt. Earl F Cannon, Jr , pilot
2nd Lt. William W Jones
2nd Lt. Lynn E Pavitt
2nd Lt. Walter E Rock
Flt. Off. Walter A. Trymbulak
T/Sgt. Stephen J Kovalich
T/Sgt. Herbert C Lingafelt
Sgt. Benjamin P Calhoun
Cpl. William W Roberts
PFC George E Orr
PFC Joseph H Paetz
PFC Joseph G Panici
PFC Jerome M Peters
PFC Daniel J Sughrue
Pvt. Carroll W Smith
“Note that T/Sgt. Herbert C Lingafelt and Sgt. Benjamin P Calhoun were omitted from official casualty reports, but were mentioned in contemporary newspaper reports….”
Mireles: “At 1248 CWT, a Boeing B-29 went out of control and crashed five miles SSW of Love Field, Dallas, Texas, killing 15 fliers. Investigators stated,
This aircraft was on a high altitude Formation Interception and Camera Bombing, First Phase Training Mission, with B-29 #42-4432 (leader) and B-29 #42-6393 (number-two position), took off at 1025 CWT on 8 October 1944, from Pratt Army Air Field, Pratt, Kansas. The [three-ship] formation formed over Pratt, Kansas, at an altitude of 21,000 feet. The formation was loose, with approximately 200 to 300 feet between aircraft. When the formation was over Dallas, Texas, at 21,000 feet altitude, B-29 #42-6393 left the number-two position due to being low on oxygen and unable to pressurize. After B-29 #42-6393 left the formation, B-29 #42-6395 [the subject airplane] requested permission from the flight leader to change from the number-three position to the number-two position in the formation. Permission was granted, and B-29 #42-6395 dropped down and to the rear of B-29 #42-4432 and started to cross over. The subject aircraft came up…and directly to the rear of B-29 #42-4432. At this time the [subject aircraft] started into a steep dive with a slight turn to the right. This continued for approximately 3,000 to 4,000 feet, at which time the aircraft flipped onto its back with the nose low, and started to spin. This inverted spin continued until the aircraft was approximately 3,000 feet above the ground when the nose carne up, flattening the spin still more and the rate of spin decreased. The aircraft crashed, inverted, on a warehouse and machine shop of the West Dallas Field of the Texas Oil Company.” (Mireles 2006, 936.)
Newspaper
Oct 9, AP: “Fourteen members of the crew of a four-engined bomber of the heaviest type were dead today after the huge craft crashed and burned on the edge of the storage tank farm of a Texas Company refinery near here. Scores of persons yesterday saw the spectacular crash of the craft, some pieces of which fell in streets and in yards almost three miles from the refinery. Lt. W. E. Dowell, assistant operations officer at Hensley Field here, reported that all 14 of the crew perished.
“The huge ship, speeding earthward, clipped a power line, cut a corner off a warehouse and burst into billowing flame within 50 feet of two large gasoline and kerosene mixing tanks, witnesses said. Investigation of the crash was first assumed by Hensley Field officials, but later was turned over to authorities at Love Field here, and to officials of Pratt Army Air Field, near Wichita, Kas. The News said the ship was based at Pratt Field and that a board of inquiry from that field would investigate the crash.
“The body of one of the men aboard was thrown clear, some members of the crew were confined in the burning plane and several bodies were found near the escape hatch. ‘I heard the pilot blasting his motors,’ said Lt. Thomas J. Flanders of the Texas State Guard who was with a group of his men at a rifle range about a mile and a half from the refinery. ‘The plane seemed about 3,000 feet up and was coming down in an inverted spin, I waited for the men to bail out, but none did. There was plenty of time. When the ship crashed, flames spurted several feet high.’ Deputy Sheriff Pat Thornburg said he heard what sounded like a muffled explosion in the sky. He said the plane went into a spin and parts of it stripped off in the air. ‘Immediately after the explosion, all four of the plane’s engines stopped, and it began spiraling toward the earth in an eerie silence,’ said Thornburg.
“Several army and navy fliers who saw the accident expressed the opinion that centrifugal force directed toward the top of the plane may have made it impossible for the crew to reach the escape hatch in time to jump.” (Associated Press. “14 Crewmen Killed In Texas Air Crash.” The Brownsville Herald, TX. 10-9-1944, p. 1.)
Sources
Aviation Safety Network, Flight Safety Foundation, Database. USAAF B-29 crash 5M SSW Love Field, Dallas, 10-8-1944. Accessed 3-25-2024 at:
https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/98453
Mireles, Anthony J. Fatal Army Air Forces Aviation Accidents in the United States, 1941-1945 (Volume 3: August 1944 – December 1945). Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co., 2006.
Associated Press. “14 Crewmen Killed In Texas Air Crash.” The Brownsville Herald, TX. 10-9-1944, 1. Accessed 3-24-2024 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/brownsville-herald-oct-09-1944-p-9/