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Site of the 1941 bomber crash twelve miles airline from Lovelock.
Lovelock, NV Bomber Crash, Feb 1941
Posted October 16th, 2009 by Stu Beitler
ARMY INVESTIGATES PLANE CRASH.
WITNESSES RELATE HOW BIG BOMBER WENT DOWN NEAR LOVELOCK.
Investigating army officers this morning made a daylight survey of the scene of the wreck of the four-motored United States army bomber on the west slope of the Trinity mountain range, twelve miles airline west of Lovelock, in a further effort to fix the cause of the crash yesterday in which the plane's crew of eight burned to death.
The three-member aircraft accident board arrived in Lovelock late last night, accompanied by Col. Thomas W. Miller of the grazing service from Reno, and immediately visited the scene of the crash, where a cordon of CCC workers had been formed to keep spectators at a distance.
Witnesses to the accident repeated their versions of the crash for the board in Lovelock today. The officers returned from the all-night visit to the scene of the disaster at four o'clock this morning. The investigation was expected to occupy three or four days, officers said.
Bodies of eight men who died in the wreck of the bombing plane, were taken to the Eddy mortuary in Lovelock. The crash was described over the two way radio between Lovelock and Winnemucca by Col. Miller as a "complete blackout."
"The bodies were unrecognizable," he told Inspector Carl Stoddard in the Reno grazing service office by radio today.
Photographers were allowed to take pictures of the wreckage today after the army board had salvaged several pieces of equipment and a few personal effects of the crew from the heat-twisted metal wreckage. It was indicated that no attempt will be made to salvage any part of the bomber from where it lies in the fire-blackened circle on the brush covered slope.
Material taken from the wreckage included four watches, a man's sheepskin lined flying suit, a few coins, "small burned pieces of metal," a piece of the carburator, and a dress shirt on which was pinned a medal. Reports, widely circulated, said the bomber carried the army's famed secret bomb sight.
Spectators were first barred from the scene and witnesses asked not to talk concerning the crash yesterday at the request of Col. F. C. Nelson, commanding officer of McClellan Field in Sacramento, the plane's starting point. The request was relayed from Reno to the accident scene through the grazing service radio by Col. Miller who was told by Col. Nelson the bomber carried "confidential instruments."
The investigating board, composed of Lieut. Col. B. J. Tooher, Capt. Robert T. Black, and First Lieut. William J. Kennedy, complimented CCC officials, workers and others who found the plane for the
"fine manner in which they carried this thing out."
The four-motored 22 1/2-ton bomber left Sacramento at 8:28 a.m. (PST) yesterday en route to Denver with Capt. R. S. FREEMAN, commandant of Ladd Field, Alaska, at the controls. The plane and crew had arrived in Sacramento last month from Alaska, and planned to proceed to Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, before returning to the territory.
The last report was heard from the plane at 9:30 o'clock, and news of the crash came soon after as eyewitnesses raced to telephones to notify authorities.
Lloyd M. Carpenter, foreman of a CCC crew working on a truck trail over the range, saw the plane plough into the mountain, shortly after hearing it among some clouds.
"I couldn't see it at first," he related, "but pretty soon it came out of the clouds and went into a dive. They gunned the motors but they couldn't pull it out of the dive, apparently, and it went into a power dive."
"When it hit the ground there was a deafening explosion. It cracked on the other side of the mountain, so I got my car and went to the scene with one of my crew .... When we got there it was nothing but a mass of flames. I looked around and I realized everybody was dead."
Another eyewitness, Paul Lykins, Reno, Nev., traveling man, disclosed that if the plane had
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cleared the mountain and was disabled, a dry lake five miles from the crash scene would have acted as an excellent emergency landing field.
Witnesses said there was no storm in the area, though the sky was overcast and there had been light showers.
"Parts of the plane were scattered in all directions," said Lykins. "A piece of the radio transmitter was lying near the road edge, easily seventy-five yards from the plane. Two motors were about thirty-five or forty feet from the main part of the ship where the bodies were lying. What looked like one-half of a motor was off about ten yards in another direction, and another half-motor probably twenty feet in another direction."
"It wasn't a pleasant sight, and I wouldn't want to see anything like it again."
The heavy guard around the plane was ordered immediately after the crash in order that nothing might be moved pending the board's probe. If the secret bomb-sight had been aboard the bomber it was entirely consumed by the flames, army officers commented.
Yesterday's crash was the fourth major air disaster for the army and navy in western states in less than two months.
On December 18, a four-motored army bomber crashed in Southern California killing six men; on January 4, a navy transport hit a mountain near San Diego, killing all eleven men aboard; and on January 16 a twin-motored army bomber crashed in the mountains near Morton, Wash., killing all seven aboard. Another army flier was killed over Farmingdale, N.Y., yesterday when two pursuit ships collided.
The war department in Washington, D.C., pointed out, however, that although the number of crashes had increased over a number of years, because of greatly increased volume of training, the rate had lowered "due to the higher physical and mental standards of pilot material."
EIGHT ARE DEAD IN CRASH OF BIG ARMY PLANE.
Members of the crew aboard the United States army bomber which crashed west of Lovelock yesterday killing eight men, in addition to Capt. R. S. FREEMAN were:
Co-pilot, First Lieut. E. W. KETCHUM.
Technical Test Sergeant K. H. GILBREATH.
Staff Sergeant EVERETT CRABB.
Sergeant J. F. DAVIES.
Sergeant E. S. TRAINER.
Sergeant F. S. WHIDDEN.
Private C. E. APPLEGATE.
All of the crew were from Ladd Field, Alaska.
The bodies were in charge of the Eddy mortuary in Lovelock today.
Captain FREEMAN was a native of Winamac, Ind., and was on his way to meet his father and brother for a reunion at Dayton, Ohio, when he was killed.
Reno Evening Gazette Nevada 1941-02-07
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