[Rainer]

The incident is described in the war diary of COM Western Sea Frontier from June 1945:
"While conducting gunnery training exercises on 13 June, one of a flight of four P-38's from the Army Air Field Santa Maria crashed into the sea about 17 miles from Point Buchon, in position 35°08'N, 121°13'W, bearing 245° True. Witnessing pilots stated that the crash occurred at approximately 1546, shortly after the plane's port engine caught fire. The pilot, Captain A.G. SEAGRAVES, had been seen to bail out of the P-38 from an altitude of 8,500 feet, although he had been unable to release his parachute harness before hitting the water and was dragged from 50 to 75 feet. An accompanying B-26 target tow plane dropped a life raft to the flyer, but he was unable to inflate it. About five minutes later, the pilot's Mae West life jacket was seen to float away. Meanwhile, an Air-Sea Rescue PBY-5A and the AVR-4 were dispatched from San Francisco to the scene of the incident, while an Army crashboat was ordered out of Avila. A thorough search of the area was made by the surface vessels and aircraft, though no trace of the missing pilot was found. All participating units secured at 2000. It is believed that the heavy seas and cold water, coupled with the exhausting effect an possible injuries sustained by the pilot when he had been dragged by his parachute, weakened him to such an extend that he had been unable to remain afloat after losing his life jacket. It was unfortunate, ASRU authorities stated, that the raft which had been dropped to the flyer by the B-26, was not one of the automatic self-inflating types. When the PBY reached the scene, carrying an automatic type raft, Captain SEAGRAVES had already disappeared."