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This is a list of accidents and incidents involving military aircraft grouped by the year in which the accident or incident occurred. Not all of the aircraft were in operation at the time. Combat losses are not included except for a very few cases denoted by singular circumstances.
Information on aircraft gives the type, and if available, the serial number of the operator in italics, the constructors number, also known as the manufacturer's serial number (c/n), exterior codes in apostrophes, nicknames (if any) in quotation marks, flight callsign in italics, and operating units.
- Flight Sergeant (1457278) Robert Erddyn Griffith - killed, buried at Wood Lane Cemetery, Ramsey, Huntingdonshire - Sergeant (1569283) William Pickering (Navigator, aged 28) - killed, buried at St Mary Magdalene Church, Whalton, Northumberland, - Sergeant (579107) Frederick Robert Edwards (Flight Engineer, aged 25) killed, buried at Poole Cemetery, Poole, Dorset - Flying Officer (196342) Moni Lall Chatterjee (Wireless Operator, aged 37) - killed, cremated at Golders Green Crematorium, London NW11. Flying Officer Chatterjee's ashes were removed from Golders Green following cremation.
Two Shot Down By Error Survive – Weary Pair Battled Gulf for 24 Hours
PANAMA CITY, Fla. AP – Thirst for drinking water was the chief worry of two weary airmen during a 24-hour battle in the storm-swept Gulf of Mexico in a life raft. They were brought here Tuesday.
S-Sgt. Charles D. Jones, 31, of Meridian, Miss., and Airman 2-c Peter R. Rosing, 22, of Ingleside, Ill., were the only known survivors of a B-17 bomber shot down by mistake Monday by a new-type automatically-controlled jet fighter.
HAD NO DOUBTS
We never had any doubts but that we would be picked up,' said Jones, a sandy-haired veteran of six years with the Air Force. 'Our only real concern was whether we'd be able to last until we got some good drinking water.
Jones and Rosing were picked up by a Coast Guard minesweeper Tuesday, then transferred to an Air Force rescue boat for an 18-mile run in to Tyndall Air Force Base. A C-47 took them to the base hospital at Eglin Air Force Base north [sic] of here.
For security reasons, newsmen were not permitted to ask the airmen about the accident which caused their plight.
SUFFERS BURNS
Rosing, a stocky, black-haired youth, was brought off the crash boat on a stretcher. He suffered second and third degree burns about the hands and face when his plane caught fire. He also was suffering from shock, and medics administered plasma as soon as he arrived.
Jones said his first thought when the plane was hit was to jump, even though he'd never made a parachute jump before in his life.
An Air Force C-47 spotted the raft bobbing about in the Gulf 60 miles southwest of Panama City, and directed the minesweeper Seer to the spot.
Both came aboard under their own power, although Rosing had severe burns of the face and hands caused when the plane caught fire. Before the rescue they spent 24 gruelling hours being tossed about by 15 feet high waves in the Gulf.
The Air Force refused to give up hope for the remaining crewmen. It speculated that heavy currents might have carried any other survivors several miles from the spot where the plane came down.
A large force of air and surface rescue craft ranged over a wide area of the Gulf searching for remaining crewmen.
The rocket that sent the B-17 plunging into the Gulf was fired by the pilot of an F-86D. This is the Air Force's newest all-weather fighter, which has been undergoing operational suitability tests at the air proving ground at Eglin before being placed in combat service.
The Air Force said the pilot, Col. Arthur R. DeBolt, 39, of Columbus, O., apparently mistook the B-17 "mother" plane for an uninhabited radio controlled drone which it was guiding.
Col. DeBolt described by the Air Force in Washington as "an exceptional officer," was grief stricken at the error, and said he was unable to explain it.
He saw the hit plainly on his radarscope and figured it was scored on the drone.
The first I new [sic] it was a mistake, I heard a voice on the radio from one of the other planes accompanying us saying, 'Watch for chutes. He got the wrong plane.' [185]
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(help)[3680] and 3682 were delivered to the Flight to replace 3670 and 3676 which had been destroyed in a hangar fire at Sea Island on 29th April 1954.
The Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker is an American military aerial refueling tanker aircraft that was developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype, alongside the Boeing 707 airliner. It has a narrower fuselage and is shorter than the 707. Boeing gave the aircraft the internal designation of Model 717. The KC-135 was the United States Air Force (USAF)'s first jet-powered refueling tanker and replaced the KC-97 Stratofreighter. The KC-135 was initially tasked with refueling strategic bombers, but it was used extensively in the Vietnam War and later conflicts such as Operation Desert Storm to extend the range and endurance of US tactical fighters and bombers.
The USAF Air Demonstration Squadron is the air demonstration squadron of the United States Air Force (USAF). The Thunderbirds, as they are popularly known, are assigned to the 57th Wing, and are based at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. Created 71 years ago in 1953, the USAF Thunderbirds are the third-oldest formal flying aerobatic team in the world, after the French Air Force Patrouille de France formed in 1931 and the United States Navy Blue Angels formed in 1946.
Norton Air Force Base (1942–1994) was a United States Air Force facility 2 miles (3.2 km) east of downtown San Bernardino in San Bernardino County, California.
This is a partial list of accidents and incidents involving the Boeing-designed B-17 Flying Fortress. Combat losses are not included except for a very few cases denoted by singular circumstances. A few documented drone attrition cases are also included.
This is a partial list of notable accidents and incidents involving the Consolidated-designed B-24 Liberator. Combat losses are not included except for some cases denoted by singular circumstances. Consolidated C-87 Liberator Express and PB4Y Privateers are also included.
In 1934, all United States commercial air mail carrying contracts were cancelled due to controversy over how the contracts had been awarded. The United States Army Air Corps was charged with carrying air mail service, beginning 19 February 1934. Due in part to extremely bad weather, inadequate preparation of the mail pilots, and the inadequacies of pressing military aircraft into duties for which they were not designed, there ensued a series of accidents over the following three months, ending when commercial services were restored. In all, 66 major accidents, ten of them with fatalities, resulted in 13 crew deaths, creating intense public furor. Only five of the 13 deaths actually occurred on flights carrying mail, but directly and indirectly the air mail operation caused accidental crash deaths in the Air Corps to rise by 15 percent to 54 in 1934, compared to 46 in 1933 and 47 in 1935.