US Navy transport plane - missing 16 Aug 1942 - West Canada
 

A USN transport plane went missing over West Canada on 16 Aug 1942 while en route from Kodiak, AK via Whitehorse, BC to Seattle, WA.

Unit reportedly VR-2 with pilot Lt Cdr Jerome H. Sparboe. All crew and passengers missing since.

Icing suspected.

Who has details about the identity of this lost airplane?

Regards,

Leendert

Re: US Navy transport plane - missing 16 Aug 1942 - West Canada
 

R4D-1, 01989, of VR2

Re: US Navy transport plane - missing 16 Aug 1942 - West Canada
 

Leendert, do you have access to the fold3 USN War Diaries ?

If not I can search them for you.

Edited: I was curious so search any way.

By the way, the documents on fold3 don't give the serial, and disagree on the number of casualtiers (one say crew + 9 passengers, another 17 passengers) but give a narrative of the flight from the point of view of the other pilots (three transports planes were flying together before being scattered by a storm).

This webpage is listing 13 casualties for this loss (with a typo on Sparboe name), 4 crew and 9 US Navy passengers:
https://missingmarines.com/2012/08/0...hur-b-barrows/

These same 13 men are commemorated on the Honolulu Memorial on the date of 17 August 1943 (one year and one day after going missing, the usual norm for US memorials). They are the only ones commemorated here for this date, so my conclusion would be that the document saying there were 17 passengers is probably wrong.

Re: US Navy transport plane - missing 16 Aug 1942 - West Canada
 

The accident report lists 5 crew and 9 passengers, giving a total of 14. Major Barrows was the only Marine passenger.

Re: US Navy transport plane - missing 16 Aug 1942 - West Canada
 

Thanks for these further details. I had seen the missingmarines.com website with the names of the victims.
If men and aircraft are still missing, then the accident must have been in a very inaccessible place...

Regards,

Leendert

Re: US Navy transport plane - missing 16 Aug 1942 - West Canada
 

A crash at sea is also fairly possible.

Re: US Navy transport plane - missing 16 Aug 1942 - West Canada
 

Yes Laurent,

Date Of Loss:
On August 15, 1942, Captain Barrows was officially detached from the USS St. Louis. He and thirteen other servicemen boarded a Navy aircraft in Kodiak, Alaska. They planned to stop over in Whitehorse before continuing on to Seattle. Three aircraft took off on the first leg of the trip, but soon became separated in bad weather. Only two touched down in Whitehorse; the aircraft carrying Barrows was missing. No trace of the aircraft, its crew, or passengers was ever found despite intense search efforts.

The distance to Whitehorse is ~1,000km with ~600km over the sea.