B-24L - 44-49538 - loss at Goose Bay - 13 Jan 1945

[RSwank]

I received the accident report and uploaded it to a shareable Google Drive.
The link below should allow anyone to see/download the file:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ozv...ew?usp=sharing


I did a quick look through of the file. Many of the pages are just photos of the wreck and are of poor quality (the file has been copied too many times). There was a crew of nine men, all were killed although one of them, (Robinett) lived a little while. The wreckage was all on the ice (Lake Melville) 6 miles east of the field. The weather at the time: Precipitation ceiling was 5000',sky obscured, visibility was 2.5 miles with light snow, winds ENE at 4 mph.

Crew List:
P: Mellion, Roger J. 2nd Lt
CP: Pfeifer, Albert A. F/O
N: Hedlund, Frank G. F/O
EG: Kohnfelder, Jack (NMI) (Kohnfelder and the rest were enlisted men, rank Cpl)
RO: Corrigan, John J.
AG: Robinson, Waldo E. Jr
CG: Robinett, Wayne W.
CG: Wistock, Joseph G.
CG: Mallon, Robert A.


There was no indication of a failure of any of the engines or of the Airframe, Landing Gear or other material.

The plane was pointed back toward the landing field, but given the short time it was in the air (three minutes, they crashed at 03:07) they don't think it had made a 180 turn and was returning. Rather they think the plane was in a spin and had spun around to face back toward the field when it cashed. There is indication that some of the crew may have been trying to bail-out. They were a new combat crew taking the plane to Europe.

There is some speculation that one of the engines may have been running rich and it would have been shooting flames out the exhaust on take-off. Perhaps a crewman reported an engine on fire which distracted the pilot and he stopped watching his instruments. They were taking off on instruments as there were no lights visible once off the field. Another comment was that in the training of crews at the time (to avoid accidents) they were doing all their flying in ideal conditions and were not experiencing less than ideal flight conditions, so were not prepared for some flight situations. The crews were not well trained in instrument flying. Mellion was rated "White" for instrument flying (the higher level was "Green"). He had 16 hours of instrument flying and it is not clear if those were just "under a hood". Green level required 100 hours of actual instrument time, not just under the hood.

The pilot (and I assume the crew) had arrived at Goose Bay on 19 December and done no flying while there.



There is no mention of penicillin vials. I don't know if this plane would of been carrying them. I did find another reference to the vials here (search for vials) so I have no doubt they were found in the spring.

http://kickercna.ca/2019/02/04/eleven-boxes/

I wonder if they may have come from another plane crash (maybe a cargo plane?) that occurred that winter.


It is interesting to note that a Canadian theory of the crash as given by Laurent back in post #9 was that it may have been caused by carburetor icing.

[Stig Jarlevik]

With nothing to contribute I have just followed this topic.

However I notice that the crash date 13 Jan 1945 and the time 03.07H has the letters GMT behind. To me this indicates that the accident happened before midnight on the 12th at appx 23.07H (if Canada Atlantic time zone back then was the same as now, ie -4).
It may even have been at 23.37H if Goose Bay falls inside a small area which today seems to be -3.5)

Is this correct thinking or am I barking up a wrong tree (again....)?

B Rgds
Stig

[Leendert]

Thanks, Rolland, for this Accident Report with the last two missing names. Help much appreciated.
Cpl. Robinett has DOD 19 Jan 1945 according findagrave, which is in line that one crew member died after several days.

Stig: can't help here with exact date, but perhaps 13 Jan 1945 as 'safe' date when fatal outcome was established. This notwithstanding a take-off just before midnight Labrador time if calculated from GMT. In any case, crew has official DOD of 13 Jan 1945, plus one on 19 Jan 1945.

A midnight take-off challenging enough in wintry conditions, but flying eastwards towards a rising sun. Although in January not many sunlight hours far North...

Lt Warner (post # 1) also writes: "The banks of snow on either side of the runways made it seem like a canyon when our plane took off for Greenland.".
He also had trouble with his B-24 at Goose Bay. An APU malfunctioned, apparently not properly been 'winterized' prior departure at Mitchel Field, LI, NY.

Will look if names of Cpl. Robinett and Wistock appeared in newspapers.

Regards,
Leender

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Originally Posted by Stig Jarlevik

With nothing to contribute I have just followed this topic.

However I notice that the crash date 13 Jan 1945 and the time 03.07H has the letters GMT behind. To me this indicates that the accident happened before midnight on the 12th at appx 23.07H (if Canada Atlantic time zone back then was the same as now, ie -4).
It may even have been at 23.37H if Goose Bay falls inside a small area which today seems to be -3.5)

Is this correct thinking or am I barking up a wrong trea (again....)?

B Rgds
Stig

Good point. On page 7 of the accident report there is ETD (I guess Estimated Time of Departure) = 2330 hrs. As the crash occured some minutes later, it was probably at 2337 hrs local time (So GMT - 3.5 hrs).

Next question, was it in the evening of the 12th (so in the early hours of the 13th GMT) or in the evening of the 13th ? I think the crash actually occured on the evening of the 12th, as the RCAF war diary for which I provided a link above shows that it was found on the 13h at 0702Z (so 0332 hrs local time).

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Originally Posted by RSwank

I'll see what the accident report would cost from aviationarchaeology.com. If not too much I may just order it.


UPDATE

I ordered the Accident Report, it may take a few weeks.

By the way, how much does it cost to buy an accident report on aviationarchaeology.com ?

[RSwank]

There is a table of fees here:

https://www.aviationarchaeology.com/src/reports.htm

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Thanks, too expensive for me right now.

[Stig Jarlevik]

Rolland

While I still remember it. Even if this topic was not "mine", very decent of you
to provide (buy) the accident report and put it on line for all of us to see!!

Hat's off to that any day in the week!!

Take Care
Stig