Las Vegas

The crew was engaged in a training exercise in the region of Las Vegas. En route, the pilot was instructed to modify his route and to abandon the exercise to locate a reported parachute in the region of the Mt Charleston. In unknown circumstances, the twin engine aircraft hit a mountain slope west of Las Vegas, in the Charleston Mountain Range. The wreckage was found a day later. All six occupants were killed.
Crew:
Lt Frank P. Smith, pilot,
Beverly Jean Moses, copilot, 4.

The crew was engaged in a training mission from the Las Vegas Army Air Field. While cruising in stormy weather, the Martin AT-23A Marauder crashed in a mountainous area located near Craffe, some 15 miles northeast of Van Buren, Arkansas. All seven crew members were killed.
Crew:
Cpl Harry M. Covert,
Lt T. Getson,
2nd Lt William T. Pearson,
2nd Lt Curtis H. Myers,
2nd Lt George M. Stewart,
S/S Robert F. Thompson,
Sgt Raymond Mascio.

Crew took off on their mission at approximately 0700. Everything was in order. The airplane was serviced with three hundred (300) pounds of oxygen. They climbed to twenty thousand (20,000) feet and remained at this altitude for approximately one and one-half (1-1/2) hours. The crew put on their oxygen masks between nine thousand (9000) and ten thousand (10,000) feet as instructed by the pilot. The mission at twenty thousand (20,000) feet was uneventful and after returning down to nine thousand (9000) feet, the crew was instructed to remove their oxygen masks and proceed with the camera mission after meeting the fighter plane at the designated rendezvous point. The first student in the front section of the airplane had spent his film in the upper turret. While in the turret he took his parachute with him and placed it on the floor beside the turret. Nothing happened during his course of operation except that the interphone went out of commission in the turret. This student returned to the nose of the airplane and the second student took his position in the turret and loaded his film. He also took his parachute pack with him and placed it on the floor beside the turret. This student noticed that the interphone was out of commission, but the instructor ordered him to continue anyhow. By this time, the engineer had checked everything very carefully, reported to the pilot, and returned to the radio compartment to keep out of the way of the gunners. After the second student had started tracking with the turret, he noticed it had suddenly stopped working. He tried to move the controls again, but they wouldn't move. Luckily it had stopped in the almost stowed position with the guns rearward, so he could easily get out. Just a split second after the turret had stopped, the student noticed a violent array of sparks flying around his legs, and without any further delay, he backed out of the turret and down into the forward tunnel, taking his parachute pack with him, beating out the fire on it which had been ignited by the sparks. By the time the student was in the nose, the cabin was filling rapidly with smoke and intense heat. The pilot and co-pilot stated that they saw a flame emerging from underneath the center of the turret, shooting toward the left side of the cockpit, similar to a strong blow torch or acetylene torch flame. It was a bluish or red flame. They stated that the heat was intense and the smoke had an acrid, irritating odor.
The co-pilot then went down into the nose of the airplane. The crew already had their parachutes on and upon his command, relayed from the pilot, and started bailing out. One student who had become frantic was crying out that someone had taken his parachute, and started grabbing violently at the parachutes of the other crew members,. He grabbed the co-pilot's parachute and pulled the rip cord, spilling the parachute. The co-pilot gathered it up in his arms, held the pilot chute in his hand and jumped out. It opened, but had been burned and ripped somewhat, which is probably the reason that the co-pilot was injured on landing. The pilot had followed the co-pilot down into the nose and picked up the students parachute from the floor and handed it to him and them jumped himself. This student had put the parachute on upside down and followed the pilot out. His parachute opened and he landed uninjured. In the rear of the airplane, the instructor noticed the smoke and started up through the bomb bay with a fire extinguisher, but realized it was useless because the fire and smoke were too intense. He heard someone shout, "bail out" and immediately returned to the radio compartment and closed the door behind him. By this time all but one in the rear of the airplane had their parachutes on and were ordered to bail out. One student in the rear of the airplane couldn't find his parachute and the instructor told him it was located in the radio room. The first man standing at the side door, was pushed out by the man behind him. The remaining crew stated that his parachute had opened. This man was never found by any searching party and it is believed that his parachute opened but that he may have been injured while landing in some inaccessible place and died of exposure and injuries. One man was found among the wreckage with is parachute on. This is the man who had to return to the radio compartment to get his parachute and probably was suffocated before he could get back to the escape door. Another man was found after he had walked out of the mountains for a distance of about fifteen (15) miles away from the scene of he accident. He received minor injuries. The pilot and co-pilot had assembled eight (8) other men on a mesa and they proceeded to walk out of the mountains and were picked up by the searching party approximately thirty-six (36) hours after the accident. An intensive searching party, working by reliefs, was organized by this field, equipped with ground to air communications. Also a posse organized by the deputy sheriff of Alamo, Lincoln County, Nevada, equipment with pack horses, aided in the search. It took four (4) days for a ground party to reach the scene of the accident.

Source : http://www.av.qnet.com/~carcomm/wreck30.htm

While cruising at the assigned altitude of 10,000 feet, the aircraft went out of control and crashed in a field located near Fairfield, Utah. The rescuers arrived on the scene around 1125LT and were able to evacuate two passengers seriously injured while 17 other occupants were killed. It appears that the aircraft reached a wrong attitude and lost part of its wings and stabilizer prior to be out of control.
Crew:
Edward John Loeffler, pilot,
James Clifton Lee, copilot,
Douglas Mortimer Soule, copilot,
Cleo Lorraine Booth, stewardess.

24 minutes after its departure from Hollywood-Burbank Airport, while cruising northeast of Santa Clarita, the crew encountered foggy conditions. While cruising at a height of some 3,300 feet, the twin engine aircraft impacted the slope of Stroh Peak located in the Mint Canyon. Rescuers arrived on scene 36 hours later. The aircraft was totally wrecked and all 9 occupants were killed. Brand new, the aircraft was on its way to Las Vegas to be presented to the President of the company. All occupants were employees of Northwest Airlines or Lockheed Company.
Crew:
Sidney Willey, Lockheed test pilot in charge of the flight,
Fred Whittemore, Northwest Airlines Vice-President and copilot.
Passengers:
Henry Salisbury, Northwest Airlines official, accompanied with his wife and two children, Richard and Judith,
Mrs. Carl B. Squier, wife of Lockheed's Sales Manager,
Liola Totty, Lockheed stenographer,
Evelyn Dingle, Northwest Airlines employee.

Passing over Saugus at 5,200 feet, the aircraft was already 300 feet below the minimum prescribed altitude. The pilot elected to contact ATC without any success. Due to low visibility caused by foggy conditions, the pilot failed to realize he was flying at an insufficient altitude. With a rate of descent of 525 feet per minute, the twin engine aircraft impacted the slope of the Pinetos Peak located near Newhall. The copilot and four passengers, among them the explorer Martin Johnson, were killed.
Crew:
William W. Lewis, pilot,
Clifford P. Owens, copilot, †
Esther Jo Connor, stewardess.
Passengers:
James Braden, †
Martin Johnson, †
Osa Johnson,
A. L. Loomis, †
E. E. Spencer, †
Arthur Robinson,
R. T. Andersen,
H. H. Hulse,
Lita James,
T. E. Tillinghast.

While approaching Salt Lake City Airport at night and in poor weather conditions, the crew was unable to fix his real position and was unaware that the aircraft deviated from the approach path to the east. While cruising at an altitude of 11,000 feet at a speed of 207 miles an hour, the twin engine aircraft impacted the slope of Lone Peak (11,253 feet high) located some 20 miles southeast of the airport. SAR teams were unable to locate the aircraft and all operations were suspended few days later. The wreckage was eventually found on July 4, 1937.
Crew:
S. J. Samson, pilot,
William L. Bogan, copilot,
Gladys Witt, stewardess.
Passengers:
C. Christopher,
Mr. & Mrs. John Wolf,
E. W. Edwards.

En route from March AFB to Las Vegas, the crew encountered problems and was forced to attempt an emergency landing. The aircraft crash landed some 32 km east of Palmdale and came to rest. All five crew members evacuated safely and the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

Crashed in unknown circumstances. There were no casualties.

The pilot Maurice Graham was performing a mail flight from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City with an intermediate stop in Las Vegas. He departed Las Vegas at 2200LT bound for Salt Lake City. While flying at night over the mountains east of Cedar City, Utah, he encountered poor weather conditions with blizzard. At a height of 12,000 feet, the aircraft stalled and crash landed on a mountain slope. The pilot was unhurt and walked away with the mail package. As the aircraft did not arrive in Salt Lake City, SAR operations were initiated but no trace of the aircraft nor the pilot was found. Eventually, Ward Mortenson and Elburn Orton, two youthful sheepherders, found the wreckage of the aircraft on 24 June 1930 some 22 miles south of Cedar City, in the Kanarra Mountains. The dead body of the pilot was found few days later, in July 1930, six miles away from the crash site.