Oregon

After takeoff from Pendleton Airport, while climbing, the pilot lost control of the airplane that crashed 4 km north of the airfield. All eight crew members were killed.
Crew:
2nd Lt Andrew J. Francisco,
Sgt Donald Clark,
Pvt Lovis Fagan,
2nd Lt Leroy E. Grindle,
Cpl Vernon A. Learman,
2nd Lt Ruel Carter Shows,
S/Sgt Allen D. Spiers,
Pvt George Vrable.

The twin engine airplane departed Gray Army Airfield in Fort Lewis on a liaison flight to the Sacramento Air Depot, carrying two passengers and one pilot. While cruising at an altitude of 4,000 feet south of Medford, the pilot reported poor weather conditions with freezing rain. Shortly later, the airplane impacted the slope of a mountain located near Pilot Rock, some 15 miles southeast of Ashland. As the airplane failed to arrive at destination, SAR operations were initiated but the wreckage was finally found by a local resident 8 June 1942. All three occupants were killed. At the time of the accident, the visibility was poor due to thick fog with freezing rain and snow falls.
Crew:
1st Lt Raymond A. Stockwell, pilot,
Passengers:
T/Sgt Randolph Jones,
T/Sgt Paul W. Stone.

Shortly after a night takeoff from Portland-Intl Airport, while climbing in foggy conditions, the twin engine aircraft lost height and crashed in an open field, bursting into flames. Four passengers were killed while six other occupants were injured.

The three engine airplane was ready for a schedule service from Portland to Medford. As the weather was iffy, all passengers tickets were canceled but the crew has to deliver the mail. The airplane departed Portland-Swan Island Airport at 1015LT bound for Eugene. Approaching Eugene, the crew encountered marginal weather conditions with low clouds but was able to land without further problems. After the mail was deplaned, the crew was cleared for takeoff. Following a normal takeoff run, the pilot-in-command initiated the rotation when the right engine failed. The airplane stalled, collided with a runway light and eventually crashed onto a vacant house. All three crew members were injured, both pilots seriously. The following day, they both died from their injuries. The aircraft named 'Dawson' was destroyed.
Crew:
Harold Adams, pilot, †
Kenneth Householder, copilot, †
Cornelia Pederman, stewardess.

Shortly after takeoff from Portland-Swan Island Airport, while climbing, the engine exploded. The pilot ditched the airplane in the Willamette River off the airfield. The pilot was injured and the passengers was killed.

An in-flight fire forced the pilot to attempt an emergency landing. The aircraft flipped over and came to rest, bursting into flames. All three occupants were injured and the aircraft was destroyed.

En route from Medford to Seattle, the pilot lost his orientation due to foggy conditions. He attempted an emergency landing when the aircraft crashed in an uninhabited area. The pilot walked for about 24 hours in deep snow to find help.

En route, technical problems forced the pilot to attempt an emergency landing. Upon impact, the aircraft flipped over and came to rest, bursting into flames. The pilot escaped unhurt while the aircraft was destroyed by a post crash fire.

The pilot Harold Buckner was performing a mail flight from Boise to Pasco. While cruising by night, he encountered low visibility due to foggy conditions when the aircraft impacted a hill near Cove. The aircraft was destroyed and the pilot was killed.

On the morning of October 2, 1928, Pacific Air Transport pilot Grant Donaldson took off in NC5339 from Medford, Oregon, on his way to Portland with nine pounds of mail and passenger D. P. Donovan, a West Coast drugstore chain owner and a gemstone dealer who carried a satchel of diamonds. An hour into scud-running beneath low-lying clouds, Donaldson heard booming noises and discovered that he was scraping treetops. There was no time to recover. The 40C dove forward “as if it had been a giant scythe,” reported the Roseburg, Oregon News-Review. “One tree, nearly a foot in diameter was cut off about 25 feet from the ground.” Donaldson rushed out of the cockpit as the biplane’s nitrate-doped cotton skin fueled a fire so intense it melted the aircraft’s metal propeller. He fought through the flames to check on his passenger, but saw that Donovan had been killed on impact. Donaldson’s actions left him with severe burns; for the rest of his life he would have a scar tissue circumscription of flight goggles on his face. Bloody and incoherent, Donaldson staggered down to a highway, where a preacher and his family hurriedly drove him to a pharmacy nine miles north, in Canyonville. “The next day the airline went up there and they got the remains of poor Donovan,” says Pemberton. “They picked out what diamonds they could, and they salvaged what they could of the engine.” For years afterward, townspeople hiked up to the crash site to sift for diamonds. (Rumors abound of Canyonville wives who own rings set with diamonds from the crash.) In 1929, they hacksawed the tail section off to use as a nursery school jungle gym.
Source: www.airspacemag.com