Wreckchasing Message Board

65th Anniversary of Crash of PBM-5 on Mount Tamalpais

Tamranger — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:30:52 GMT

This Saturday I will be leading a group organized by Chuck Jessen of the Gnoss Field Community Association to the crash site of US Navy PBM-5 "Peter-9" of VPB-208 which crashed on 11/30/1944 killing all 8 members of Combat Aircrew Charlie.

The group is meeting at the Mountain Home Inn parking lot at 10:45 and starting the hike in at 11:00 AM. I will be meeting them at the start of the Old Plane Trail at the junction of Old Railroad Grade and Hoo-Koo-e-Koo Fire Road.

Once at the Old Plane Trail I will give an interpretive walk up to the crash site and the main debris field (which appears in guidebooks and some trail maps of Mt Tam). If you are interested in attending you can meet at the Mountain Home Inn lot at the above time or be at the start of the Old Plane Trail at 11:30 AM.

Reporters from the Marin IJ and SF Chronicle may be there and perhaps also a representative from the Navy. Come honor those lost on the Home Front of World War II.

Feel free to contact me for directions.

USCG HU-16 Crash Site Found on Google Earth

PACS — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:01:04 GMT

Found a crash site this weekend of a Coast Guard HU-16 that crashed in British Colombia on June 15, 1967.

Not sure the attachments will work but Ill give them a try.

I attached the photo and the GoogleEarth_Placemark, but it has a TXT extension. Download it and rename the extension to KMZ and it should work.

Several weeks ago I received an email from a woman asking about a crash on my Web page.

Her father was killed in the crash when she was an infant. Whenever she asked her mother about it she was told it was a secret mission and nobody knew anything about it.

I started by telling her that very little the Coast Guard does is secret and that is was just a terrible accident during a search mission. I passed along the details in my files.

She asked me why her mother would lie to her and I told her to go easy on her mother, that it was probably very painful for her to talk about and that it was just her way of dealing with it.

Anyway I had been working on another crash, but I dived into his one. I was able to track down the Alaska State Trooper who had survived the crash. He sent me his file that included some photos and part of the crash report.

There was nothing in the files he sent me that pin pointed the crash site, but among the photos he sent was an aerial of the crash site. I figured that was all I needed to find the site. Well after a couple of hours and Google Earth, a NASA site and some others, I still didnt have a location.

This weekend I went through all the papers in my file and pulled out anything that mentioned a location or landmark. 50 miles east of XXX, West of XX mountain range, East end of XXX Lake, and so on. Some of the indicators contradicted others.

Anyway when I went back to Google Earth, I was able to duplicate the aerial photo view in Google Earth in about 20 minutes. That allowed me to get a fix that I would say it within a 50 yards or so. Crash site at approx 59 6'39.00"N 13336'2.27"W

I also learned why the crash occurred.

The simple reason for the crash was that the co-pilot said, Turn right, and the pilot turned left right into a hillside.

They had been searching for a couple of hours at the time and the routine was to go up a valley turn left and exit the valley.

On this run they were already flying along the left side of the valley. So the co-pilot (who had a map in his lap and was navigating) told the pilot to make a right.

The pilot instead did what he had been doing all day and turned left. The entire front half of the HU-16 was buried into the hillside. Within a minute of impact the plane burst into flames. The three in the back (two Coasties and a State Trooper) were just barely able to escape with their lives.

The entire story behind the crash is fascinating. It involves an act of congress, a suicide, and a fuel tank lid that wasnt secured properly.

If anyone makes is to the site the State Trooper, now retired, told me he lost his badge in the crash and would like it back if someone comes across it.

Addenum - I tried the Google Earth Placemark I uploaded from another computer and it was all screwed up. So I uploaded a screenshot from Google Earth. I looks much better.

Navy to test live bombs in central Florida.

Warbirder — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:48:31 GMT

If you've been following Dennis's posts on the search and recovery of a B-26 at USAFAvon Park Bombing Range, here's a link to news that might affect, and certainly will delay progress.

http://www.wftv.com/news/21631201/detail.html

Laguna Mountain Crash Sites VISITED!

canyonair — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:18:24 GMT

The November 9th trip to Laguna Mountain went well. The weather was good. The two DC-3 sites we hoped to find turned into one Piper PA-28 and one DC-3.

With the other DC-3 still un-accounted for, the search goes on for the crash site of American Airlines Flight 6-103. I will make sure I get a weekend day off so more can go along.

Mike

http://www.lostflights.org/General-Aviation-Archaeology/December-19-1968-Piper-PA-28/10284136_4ZSxK

http://www.lostflights.org/Commercial-Aviation/122446-Western-Air-Lines-DC-3/6660604_pxsgb

Korean War era training accidents.

TAdan — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:26:15 GMT

Hi, I am looking for info on a couple of Korean war era stateside training accidents. Tony M refered me to this website.

I have spent a good deal of time looking elsewhere and have not come up with much info. I'll post the information that I have.

Date: 9/17/53. Pilot: Ensign David F. Bascom. Description: Virginia Beach, VA. Oceana NAS. Killed when his aircraft failed to come out of a dive during rocket maneuvers over the Atlantic.

Date: 3/14/53. Pilot: 2nd Lt. Martin F. Gould. Description: Kingston NY, His aircraft crashed and burned during flight instruction.

Anyone have any more information or any leads?

Thanks for your help.

Dan

Med-Flight Chopper Down North of Reno

NVWarbirds — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 16:06:11 GMT

http://www.rgj.com/article/20091114/NEWS/91114039&OAS_sitepage=news.rgj.com%2Fbreakingnews

Adelanto PV-18

theronmoon — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:35:13 GMT

Today on my way to work I was able to locate the wreck site for the rare PV-18 helicopter that went down last Friday killing its proud owner and two other occupants. They were departing for a airshow when they hit some transmission lines. Below is a link to my pictures and to a few news clips.

http://theronmoon.smugmug.com/Desert-Wrecks/Piasecki-PV-18/10306584_bsKfc#712202274_SDfd9

http://cbs5.com/wireapnewsca/3.dead.as.2.1298710.html

http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-vintage-helicopter-crash,0,1154841.story

A very somber site.

SE CA Search

AAIR — Thur, 12 Nov 2009 03:30:32 GMT

With classes cancelled Monday & Wednesday due to furloughs and Veterans Day, I figured I could play this weekend and catch up during the week. Several months back, I had been contacted by an archaeologist who had found a crash site while doing a survey. I suspected it was an F-100 that I had been researching and thought I would take this opportunity to check it out and look for several other crash sites in the area. Ended up being a little over 1000 miles of pavement and 100 miles of dirt!

http://aair.smugmug.com/Aviation-Archaeology-1/Baker-CA-trip/10288634_XJMW5/1/710555340_Ux99h

TWA Martin 404

skyraider0609 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:09:32 GMT

Anyone here ever been to this wreck?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Flight_260

Pete

T-38 North of Edwards

theronmoon — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:03:05 GMT

On Friday the 6th I was able to locate the site of the T-38 that went down last May. While I was hiking back to my car a Mig-15 buzzed the hill I was climbing up. Very cool. Here is a link to my pictures of the site.

http://theronmoon.smugmug.com/Desert-Wrecks/T-38-North-of-Edwards/10255796_nJ4Zv#707476356_HDLdU

1936 UAL crash in Newhall, CA

Newhallgeorge — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:15:51 GMT

Has anyone on this site been to the site of United Airlines Boeing 247D that crashed into Rice Canyon near Newhall, California? I been interested in that crash ever since I read the newspaper accounts from the period. I've hiked to the site but could not locate anything except for rattlesnakes. I suspect that after so many years anything left at that site would be covered up by brush. I am really curious if anyone has found anything there and if they have any pictures.
GR

NOTICE: North American Aviation Archaeology 2010 Summit Announcement.

MHensarling — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:35:32 GMT

Notice

The North American Aviation Archaeology 2010 Summit will be held at the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Broomfield, Colorado, over the weekend of April 17th & 18th, 2010.

Hosted by the North American Institute of Aviation Archaeology (NAIAA) and the Northern Colorado field office of AvAr, this two day event is intended to gather serious members of the aviation archaeology and wreckchasing communities in an effort to establish guidelines for a national organization.

Focused on open discussion and workgroup sessions, the design of this conference is to maximize participation for all who attend. Rather than offering presentations of past accomplishments, attendees will be invited to contribute ideas based on knowledge and previous experiences that will lend to the development of a new, national organization of aviation archaeology.

Addressing such issues as organizational structure, mission orientation, principles of operation, educational standards, and membership criteria, along with establishment of an ethical code of conduct will be the primary focus of this Summit.

This is a truly unique opportunity to help create a national organization. What will be discussed at this conference may well shape the future of aviation archaeology for all enthusiasts. Should you wish to attend please RSVP no later than December 31st, 2009. To RSVP for this Summit please contact Brian Richardson or Matthew Hensarling of the North American Institute of Aviation Archaeology.

Daily refreshments and handout materials will be provided. A special discount rate for lodging near the facility has also been arranged for early registrants. Attending delegates will also receive a commemorative certificate of recognition for their participation in this monumental summit.

Contacts:
Brian Richardson, Director
North American Institute of Aviation Archaeology
Aviatior_B@msn.com

Matthew Hensarling, Information Manager
North American Institute of Aviation Archaeology
mattncolorado@yahoo.com

Swap Meet B-24 Wreck Mystery Photo

DaveTrojan — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 04:10:12 GMT

Lucky me, for $1 dollar I purchased an original B-24 wreck photo at the Swap Meet.
The vendor said it was somewhere in the Pacific.
Now I just need to figure out all the details.
Where did it crash?
When did it crash?
Which B-24 is it?
How did it crash?
Why did it crash?
Any wreck still there?

Any help with this would be appreciated!

I can't make any sense of the numbers at the bottom of the photo except the aircraft was a B-24.
It looks like the Aleutian Islands to me.
DaveT

He FLEW this one!

Dennis — Thur, 05 Nov 2009 00:23:49 GMT

Igot this in an email a cuople of days ago, but couldn't open it. Had to look it up. http://www.zrxoa.org/forums/showthread.php?t=223355 Hope I got it right. Dennis

Helicopter crashes on ship

Warbirder — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:56:52 GMT

This is an older 30-second clip but is the first time I've seen it.

http://video.yahoo.com/watch/3221399/9097937