Date: | Friday 5 May 1944 |
Time: | 10:26 |
Type: | Douglas C-49H (DC-3) |
Owner/operator: | United States Army Air Force - USAAF |
Registration: | NC21788 |
MSN: | 2187 |
Year of manufacture: | 1940 |
Engine model: | Wright R-1820-97 |
Fatalities: | Fatalities: 4 / Occupants: 4 |
Other fatalities: | 4 |
Aircraft damage: | Destroyed, written off |
Category: | Accident |
Location: | 10 km SE off Lake Worth, FL -
United States of America
|
Phase: | En route |
Nature: | Military |
Departure airport: | Miami-36th Street Airport, FL (MIA/KMIA) |
Destination airport: | Savannah International Airport, GA (SAV/KSAV) |
Narrative:A Consolidated B-24D (41-11889) departed Homestead AAF, FL on an instrument flight to West Palm Beach, FL. To simulate instrument conditions, the pilot was flying under the hood.
At 10:06 a Douglas C-49 took off from Miami, bound for Savannah and began to climb to its assigned cruising altitude of 3000 feet. At 10:20 the pilot of the B-24 radioed Morrison Field that the exercise was completed and that they were leaving the Morrison Radio Range. It proceeded to the south at an altitude of 1500 feet. At 10:26 both aircraft collided nearly head on. The B-24D's port wing separated near the no. 1 engine. The airplane rolled over to the left and crashed into the sea. The C-49 went into a steep spiral and impacted the sea about a mile off shore.
It is presumed that the pilot of the B-24 was still under the hood with both crew members of the C-49 preoccupied with their respective cockpit duties.
Official records list the C-49's serial as 39-2187. This seems improbable
Sources:
Aviation Archaeological Investigation and Research (AAIR) Fatal Army Air Forces Aviation Accidents in the United States, 1941-1945, Vol. 2: July 1943-July 1944 / Anthony J. Mireles
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
2 March 1942 |
NC21788 |
Pennsylvania-Central Airlines |
0 |
Detroit City Airport, MI |
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sub |
Revision history:
Date/time | Contributor | Updates |