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Bein Tharsuinn, Succoth Glen, 2.5 miles W of Lochgoilhead, Argyll -
United Kingdom
Phase:
En route
Nature:
Military
Departure airport:
RAF Scampton, Lincolnshire
Destination airport:
Smokey Hill AFB, Salinas, Kansas
Narrative: Boeing B-29A-70-BN Superfortress 44-62279: Delivered to the USAAF 15 February 1946. Assigned to 31st Bomb Squadron, 301st Bomb Wing, Smoky Hill AFB, Kansas.
On the morning of January 17, 1949, Boeing B-29 Superfortress 44-62276 took off from RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, England, on a return trip to her airfield at Smoky Hill Air Force Base (AFB), Salinas, Kansas, with twenty passengers and crew on board, accompanied by a similar aircraft. The crew were reported to be on leave, having previously been involved in the Berlin Airlift, dropping supplies into the city which had been blockaded by Soviet forces.
The planned route was overland via Scotland, then on to Keflavik, Iceland, where they would stop to refuel and take on supplies. The weather was variable, and as the two aircraft reached Strathclyde, falling temperatures and cloud began to cause icing of their wings and control surfaces. The pilot of the second B-29, Captain Donald E Riggs, decided conditions had become too severe to continue, and turned back for Scampton. Unfortunately, there is no record of the circumstances surrounding the first aircraft, piloted by 1st Lt Sheldon C. Craigmyle.
At 09:50, the B-29 crashed into the side of Stob na Boine Druim-fhinn, a hill in Succoth Glen, near Lochgoilhead, Argyll, spreading wreckage in the valley between Stob na Boine and Beinn Tharsuinn. All twenty passengers and crew perished, with the aircraft being consumed by the resultant fire.
The subsequent inquiry was unable to determine the exact cause of the accident, but the adverse weather and heavy icing were deemed to be contributory factors.
Crew and passengers lost with B-29 44-62276 Pilot 1st Lt Sheldon C Craigmyle Co-pilot 1st Lt Myrton P Barry Navigator 1st Lt Richard D Klingenberg Bombardier 1st Lt Robert A Fritsche T/Sgt Delbert E Cole M/Sgt Wayne W Baker T/Sgt John B Lapicca S/Sgt Malcolm W Bovard Sgt Anthony V Chrisides Sgt Rufus W Mangum PFC Jack L Heacock M/Sgt Henry P Prestoch T/Sgt Frank M Dobbs Jr Sgt Cecil G Jones Sgt Charles W Hess PFC Robert Brown Jr T/Sgt Rufus G Taylor Sgt Paul W Knight PFC Frederick N Cook PFC Bruce J Krumhols
On April 3, 2004, the Daily Mail ran a feature on the crash, writing that the aircraft carried a cargo of diamonds worth some £250,000 at the time of writing. Nothing has ever been found of the haul its story referred to