Military

Following an uneventful flight from RAF Thorney Island, the crew completed a normal approach to Manston Airport. After touchdown, the airplane deviated from the centerline of the runway to the left. The pilot-in-command elected to correct the deviation but after a run of about 250 meters, the airplane hit a snow wall, ground looped for about 130° and came to rest in flames 30 meters farther with its left wing sheared off. Two cadets were uninjured while three other crew members were killed.

While approaching La Paz-El Alto Airport in poor weather conditions, the airplane hit the slope of a mountain located few dozen km from the capital city. All 11 occupants were killed.

The crew was performing a flight from Travis AFB to Tokyo with intermediate stops at Hickam (Hawaii) and Wake Island. On the leg from Hawaii to Wake Island, the airplane crashed into the ocean in unknown circumstances. SAR operations were conducted for several days but eventually suspended as no trace of the aircraft nor the crew was ever found. The last position of the airplane was reported 375 miles southwest of Honolulu.

Shortly after takeoff from Rioja Airport, while in initial climb, the airplane went out of control and crashed. All 11 occupants were killed.

Crashed in unknown circumstances at Debre Zeit-Harar Meda Airport located about 40 km southeast of Addis Ababa. The crew fate remains unknown.

On final approach to Wiesbaden-Erbenheim AFB, the twin engine aircraft struck the ground and crashed 4 km short of runway threshold. Five crew members were killed and a sixth was injured.

Crashed in unknown circumstances near Yokota Airbase, killing all six crew members.

Few minutes after its takeoff from Corpus Christi, the seaplane suffered an engine explosion. The airplane went out of control and crashed in flames about 18,5 miles from Corpus Christi. A crew member was seriously injured while eight other occupants were killed.

The crew was completing a flight from Wheelus AFB (Mitiga) in Tripoli. While approaching Ankara-Esenboğa Airport, the pilot encountered low visibility due to poor weather conditions when the airplane struck a hill located 10 km short of runway. Three crew members were killed while five others were injured.

The morning of the crash, the crew departed from McChord Air Force Base near Tacoma, Washington, where they had picked up “hitchhiker” Corporal Timmons and then flew northward. Radio difficulties developed necessitating a return to McChord. Soon remedied, they departed once more for their first fuel stop, Annette Island, near Ketchikan, Alaska, enroute to their final destination, Anchorage, Alaska. High winds and severe turbulence prevented them from landing at Annette Island. The crew was given a choice – either return to a Canadian airport behind them or proceed north to Gustavus where runway lights and equipment for instrument landings offered better facilities for night landings than even Juneau in those days. The weather in Gustavus was reported as “clear and no winds” to “very slight winds”. The crew elected to go to Gustavus. Although the California pilot was well-trained in multi-engine instrument approaches, he was relatively new to Alaskan conditions. As the plane approached Gustavus, it was dark and beginning to snow. The passengers on the plane realized they had arrived in the Gustavus area, momentarily spotting lights through the dark and snow as they anxiously looked out the windows. The fuel supply was very low, so there were no options of returning to Annette or proceeding to Anchorage. The captain was leery of making the standard instrument approach to Gustavus because it would have required him to fly well beyond the airfield, far out over Glacier Bay with an aircraft that was running precariously low on fuel. On the next attempt – now the third time over the airport area in what the locals described as a snow squall, Mr. Aase reported that, “The pilot was in line for the runway, but got a bit low and the right wing caught a tall tree that made the aircraft start to spin and (it) nosed into the ground. “The front of the plane was badly damaged. At the same time the plane was twisting, the tail slowly lowered into the trees which cushioned it. It set down gently into the trees so that the fuselage from the wall aft was just about in perfect condition. So apparently, while attempting to keep the airfield in sight, he elected to circle and make a “short” visual approach to the runway. All four crew members were killed and the seven passengers were injured.
Crew:
Cpt Robert E. Kafader,
1st Lt Dennis V. Stamey,
S/Sgt Floyd S. Porter,
S/Sgt David A. Dial.
Passengers:
Lloyd Timmons,
2nd Lt Harry S. Aase,
Cpt Robert D. Ellis,
W/O Richard J. Mueller,
M/Sgt James E. O’Rourke,
1st Lt Wallace J. Harrison,
2nd Lt William W. Caldwell.
Source and text by Rita Wilson via
http://www.gustavushistory.org/articles/view.aspx?id=10000