The greatest single tragedy to hit the 179th Fighter Squadron took place on Memorial Day weekend, 1954 when a C-47 crashed near the Duluth airport killing nine members of the unit and two-passengers. There were only three survivors. The reliable Gooney Bird went down 200 yards off Stebner Road in a gravel pit behind the Sunrise memorial Cemetery. The C-47, piloted by Maj Frederick A Kemp Jr. and co-piloted by Cpt Victor Graboski, was returning from Indianapolis, Indiana. There they picked up K-14 gun sights, which at the time were in demand among fighter units. The plane departed Indianpolis Monday afternoon around 4:30 pm local time. The visibility at Duluth was down to zero due to fog. Kemp and Graboski were set to divert to Minneapolis when Duluth controllers radioed to tell them that visibility had improved enough for an instrument landing. When the aircraft arrived at Duluth about 9:30 pm, it was the worst visibility, one survivor later said, he had ever flown in. The C-47 missed the runway on its first approach, but according to what the airfield controller told investigators, "(Kemp) radioed the tower that he could see the landing strip and was circling for another try." He never made it. The right wing tip of the plane hit the ground and the aircraft cartwheeled as it carved a path 200 feet long through tress, coming to a stop alongside a large oak tree. The force of the crash ripped off the right wing and tore the fuselage in two. 
Both Jiemp and Graboski along with five other passengers were dead at the scene. Four more passengers died later in Duluth hospitals. Three passengers, Bill Willeck, George Ion, and Earl Sugars survived the crash. Ion was hospitalized, while Willeck and Sugars walked away from the plane with minor injuries. Members of the 179th who died in the crash were: Major Frederick Kemp, Captain Victor Graboski, 2LT John F Hughes, TSG Elmer J Haas, SSG Charles W Stewart, Jr., SSG Allen E Christensen, SSG Donald E Marty, A2C James H Stewart, A1C William D Lange. Also killed were Col A.C. Ott, U.S. Army Reserve, Cpt William C Lovshin, USAF.
