The Forgotten Crash Of 1950
The first
F-86s to land at Kanawha Airport, crashed
just 3 minutes after takeoff March
22 1950 was a cloudy overcast day in the Kanawha valley with drizzle
in the air. On this day two F-86 jets were warming up at Kanawha
Airport ready for takeoff. These were the first F-86's to ever
land here, as production jets of any type had only been in operation
for about two years. The reason these jets had landed the day
before was sort of an emergency in itself: They had run low
on fuel. Because of the scarcity of jets and jet fuel,
the pilots would have to wait for fuel to be delivered from Dayton
Ohio the following day. So, Lt. Col. A.F. Reinhardt (43)
and Capt. George Evans (28) spent the night in Charleston, and even
visited the old "Press Club" during their stay. The
two were veteran pilots of the war, and were based out of Kirkland
Field, Albuquerque New Mexico.
At around 12:19 pm on
March 22nd, the jets roared down the runway in formation almost
wingtip to wingtip. The Press covered the event live, including
a radio station. About 3 minutes later, both jets crashed
into the ground at 500 miles per hour near the Coal River town of
Emmons WV. One jet entered the earth vertically, blowing a hole
over 10 feet deep and 30 feet across. The other hit about 300
feet up the hill at less than vertical, but still digging a
huge hole in the earth. The resulting double crash was so violent
that only a few larger pieces were recovered and those could be carried
away by one man. The crash of one jet was about 100 feet
from a house in which three people were home. One was a baby
named Jean Parcell, and she lives in the same house today. The
following are reports of the event.
Be aware that some misinformation was printed as is the case with
almost all disaster stories. This was later corrected or inconclusive...
| This photo shows the jets on the ground at Kanawha Airport.
I believe that's one of the pilots looking into the cockpit, and possibly the other on the ground. Kanawha Airport was still brand new at this time, with more improvements on the way.(The above two photos courtesy of Yeager Airport Archives)
The following is from
the Charleston Gazette, March 23rd 1950
Jets Fall; Pilots
Die In Crash Two Air Force F-86
jet fighter planes crashed yesterday in a rugged mountain section
about 20 miles from here, killing both pilots. Time of the crash was
set at 12:19 p.m., less than two minutes after the two planes took
off from Kanawha Airport.
An eye-witness
said the two planes brushed wings at about 5,000 feet and plummeted
downward, disintegrating as they hit the earth with a deafening explosion
that severely damaged a house 50 yards away and blew the pilots to
bits.
The two pilots
were identified as: Lt. Col. A. F. Reinhardt, 43, a native of Huntington,
Long Island, N. Y., and Capt. George W. Evans, Jr., 28 of Laurel,
Miss.
The scene of the crash was Gripp Station on Coal River, a small hamlet
about a mile from Emmons, the nearest post office.
The two crafts were en route to Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery,
Ala., from Washington, D. C., and they were to proceed to Kirtland
Base, Albuquerque, N. M. A fuel shortage had forced the two to make
an emergency landing Tuesday at the Charleston field to await shipment
from Dayton, Ohio.
Eye witnesses said the planes exploded in a blinding flash as they
struck the ground. They fell about 50 yards apart on the hillside,
tearing out great chunks of earth. A two-feet square piece of a fuselage
was the largest fragment of either plane that was found. Only a few
scattered pieces of either man could be located in the wreckage. Small
pieces of clothing and wreckage were blown over a half-mile area.
A house about 60 yards from the crash scene was nearly blown from
its foundation by the force of the explosion. Owner of the house,
P. A. Parcell, a 41-year-old coal miner, said his house was badly
damaged by the blast. A metal piece of one plane was blown completely
through one wall into the living room. Present in the house at the
time was Parcell's wife, Vivian, his three-month-old daughter, Jean,
and an uncle, J. E. Whittington. Whittington said he was standing
at a kitchen window when the planes hit and erupted in a blinding
flash. "I saw a flash," he said, "then all of a sudden
the window blew out and the dirt started flying in my face."
Whittington said he was scared so badly that he ran into another
room, closing the door behind him.
Mrs. Parcell
said she thought lightning had struck the house and immediately grabbed
up her baby and ran from the house. "When I reached the road
in front of the house," she said, "1 looked up on the hill
back of the house and saw the two fires, pieces of stuff were flying
all through the air."
Apparently the only eye witness to the actual crash was bearded *
Wheeler Holstein, a farmer who resides in a remote section about three
miles from the scene. "I was shoveling coal in from a truck
into my house." he said "when I looked up and saw those
planes flying together across the valley." All of a sudden,"
he said, "I saw their two wings come together and they started
falling toward the ground across the mountain." Holstein said
he also saw smoke pouring from the rear of the two planes, which is
believed to have been their jet trails. Holstein described the event
to a Gazette reporter who had climbed to the top of the towering mountain
in search of a scene of the crash.
Shortly after the two ill-fated planes took off yesterday, the Kanawha
Airport radio tower cracked with inter-communication between the two
departing fliers:
"Where are you?" asked one voice, believed to have been
Col. Reinhardt.... "Right on you." Came the reply.... "Well,
don't fly too close," came the retort.
That was the last
heard from the two men as they traveled approximately 600 miles an
hour in the two craft, described as "Sabre" fighter planes.
Early reports
that the planes had struck a power line were discounted by State Police
and Army officials, who pointed out that the line was about 300 yards
below the top of the mountain over which the two jets flew. Power
line No. 5 carrying 66,000 volts from the Cabin creek power plant
to the South Charleston Naval Ordnance plant, was severed as the planes
plunged earthward. A 10 mile area around the crash scene was without
electric power. |
There were no broken limbs on trees from the top of the mountain to
the place where the planes exploded into the ground, indicating that
they plummeted vertically to the earth after their wings came together
in the air.
Late last night an Army board of Inquiry was reported en route from
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base at Dayton, Ohio, to make a formal
investigation of the crash.
In response
to a request for information, Air Force headquarters in Washington,
D. C. said Col. Reinhardt graduated from Arlington, N. J. high school
in 1921, worked for the Sanders Reinhardt Co. in Allentown, Pa., from
1927 to 1937, was an employee of the Washington D. C. Post newspaper
before entering the Air Force in 1942. Reinhardt's wife is Mrs.
Carole Reinhardt. Capt. Evans was a flight lead of the 93`d Fighter
Squadron of the 81st Fighter Group at Kirtland Field, Albuquerque,
N. Mex.
Evans attended school at Ellisville, Miss. His mother, Mrs. Etta H.
Evans, resides at Laurel. Reinhardt served with the 15th Air Force
during World War II and from 1947 to last August was stationed at
Wheeler Field: Hawaii. Evans served with the 9th Air Force during
the war and was stationed afterwards at Wheeler Field.
Results of crash were summed up in terse report of Cpl. Cohen to his
headquarters in which he said "only a handful of the pilots was
found." The remains will be at Cunningham mortuary, pending
further orders from Air Force officials.
Ironically, the same day of the crash, the Air Force announced the
815t Fighter Interceptor Wing to which both pilots were attached,
was being ordered to the Pacific Northwest to protect key defense
installations. |
Reports were
printed in both the Charleston Gazette and Daily
Mail newspapers on the day before and several days after the
above article, including this eyewitness report from Adrian
Gwin, a veteran reporter for the Daily Mail, who said the scene of
the crash was an "awesome and spectacular sight"....
"There
are pieces of bodies and the two planes over an area of roughly four
square acres. "I saw two feet severed just above the ankles,
the largest part of any body remaining. "One plane hit beside
a small dirt road at a community known as Grippe, which is half a
mile from Emmons. The other hit 200 yards away up the slight slope
of a hill. "Both planes made craters roughly 40 feet square and
about 10 feet deep. "I saw a torn patch bearing the name of Lt.
Col. Reinhardt. It was a crash pass that would permit him to go through
police lines when crashes occurred so that he could investigate. "I
saw torn bits of clothing and little pieces of flesh, including a
part of an arm, part of a scalp and a bit of a shoulder. "There
were scattered bits of maps and papers. "There was no piece of
the planes left that could have been carried away."
|
So how did I come upon this forgotten
story?
Me and Dick Miller checking out the crash site I had heard bits and
pieces of this story over the last 30 years from a couple of friends
who were actually at the crash site when it happened. One was
Danny Davidson... the other Dick Miller. At the time Danny told
me a bit about the crash, it was (to me) like all the other
crashes that have happened in our area: hard to locate now,
or hard to get to. But in the summer of 2008, Dick
Miller mentioned (almost in passing) about the crash as we were talking
about the Ashford WV area. As I had just driven right past the
crash site and didn't realize it, I asked Dick to help locate
the exact area. Naturally, Emmons is a tiny spot in the road
and I simply could have asked anyone old enough, and they would
have pointed it out. But I wanted the man who actually helped
pick up the pieces of the crash to join me in my mini adventure.
As we pulled into the exact spot, Dick said it looked right.
He was dead-on. We later located the property owner and toured
the area where the two jets buried themselves. One site near
the road was now grown over with vegetation. This is the spot
where the jet went straight-in and buried deepest. They basically
shoveled dirt over it, as there was nothing left to recover. |
BEFORE
I GO ANY FURTHER .....
Be aware that these crashes
took place on PRIVATE PROPERTY. The property owners are VERY
private people... good country folk that like most.... are hesitant
to have strangers appearing out of nowhere to bother them and
trample their land. My connection is my friend Dick, who's
family knew the property owners. So take my advice and don't
bother these people as they simply wont allow complete strangers on
their property for the purpose of looking for relics or anything else.
Understood? Great.
On the first day I took some photos. On my
second visit I brought my metal detector. The second spot further
up the hill was the key, as this jet came in at a slightly more
horizontal angle and scattered debris for hundreds of yards.
The depression is still visible in the ground after 58 years. |
This is the largest piece of either aircraft that they found. Just
as I imagined, at the second site I located hundreds of pieces
of aircraft, mostly two inches long or less. (I
didn't need to dig these up as my detector tells me how large and
how deep something is.) I looked at a couple of pieces anyway
just to see if they looked burned or not. They didn't.
I looked a little longer and hit a signal that looked interesting.
I started digging and saw the end of a piece, that continued further.
I finally removed it and discovered that stretched-out, was
about 2 feet long. The property owner told me that it was the
largest piece recovered since the initial crash 58 years ago.
I brought it home and cleaned it up, and after studying this
mangled piece, I first thought it was part of the pilots seat,
but then discovered that it's part of the wing seal.
(I had no idea that old jets used nylon fabric this way) |
A couple of background
stories.. Dick Miller is
known to many people in the Kanawha Valley and beyond. A former
pilot and business owner, Dick has lead a pretty exciting life.
On the day of the crash, Dick was a young worker at a local
brick plant on MacCorkle Ave in Charleston. He and a friend
were listening to a live broadcast on the radio of the jets about
to take-off from Kanawha Airport. As the jets flew over his
head, the noise was deafening. However, due to the
heavy overcast, he couldn't see the jets in tight formation.
A couple of minutes later, the radio announced that the jets
had crashed near Emmons. Dicks co-worker asked him if he knew
where Emmons was. He said "sure... I have family there".
So they got into a truck and started out to the site, where
they arrived just as the National Guard was pulling in. The
smoke was still heaving in the air as the National Guard commander
barked orders to his men (and anyone interested) to help pick up the
pieces. Dick jumped in and assisted all afternoon. He
told me that the thing he never forgot was a chicken coop, only
feet from the site that survived, along with the chickens inside.
On the chicken wire surrounding the coop was hanging tiny pieces of
the pilot, to which the chickens were pecking. It's been
learned also that that no one around would buy the chickens eggs after
the crash.
Danny Davidson
is also well known in his circles. Danny took off for the crash
site on his BSA motorcycle about 20 minutes after the announcement.
Due to the now heavy traffic on the very narrow road, Danny
had to take to the railroad tracks to make his way to the scene.
Earl Benton and
Chet Hawes of the Daily
Mail were there also. They both arrived early enough to see
the National Guard pull in. Earl took many photos for the paper,
while Chet didn't have a camera with him because he was only at the
Paper looking for a job that day. When the crash came in,
the Editor told Chet to ride along with photographer Ray Wheeler.
When Chet returned, he was hired on the spot and spent the next
40 some years at the Daily Mail.
I'm sure there were others
there that I would later know.... but I wouldn't be born for
6 months. |
My Opinion on the cause of
the crash....
1.... The pilots
took-off in very close formation.
Why? In my opinion, the Media. There was Press all
over the place and even a live radio broadcast. The pilots I
think, wanted to put on a good show with these brand new jets
that very few people had ever seen in early 1950. However,
experts that I have talked to state that it was standard operating
procedure for all military fighter aircraft to always fly in formation.
This seems rather odd considering the weather conditions on this day,
but who knows...
2... The weather
was marginal.
The sky's were cloudy and overcast. It was even drizzling rain.
When the pilots "hit the soup" that close together,
one simply became disoriented and "possibly" struck the
other. One rumor that's been going around for years is that
one pilot got Vertigo and the other pilot followed him in to the ground.
This was even mentioned in the newspaper early-on as a "possibility".
But it was never proven. However, I can't discount some sort
of visual interference along these lines due to the proximity
of the aircraft as they crashed at almost exactly the same second...
and the fact that they both came-in nose first. A mid-air collision
of any type shouldn't have allowed for this pattern. In other
words, one plane should have struck the ground before the other,
AND in a different attitude had they collided in the air. Moreover,
it's hard to understand why they didn't eject at 5000 feet IF they
had collided. Even if they'd wasted time trying to determine
damage, they still should have been able to eject in the "approximately"
10 seconds or so they had left. So why didn't they even try?
It appears that they FLEW the planes into the ground, so it's
really difficult to determine the actual cause of the crash.
Also remember that the pilots spent part of the previous evening
at Charleston's famous "Press Club". These were hard
core fighter pilots who had just left WWII behind a few years ago.
Did they have a little bit too much fun the night before? Could that
have affected one or both in any way... especially considering the
marginal weather conditions?
We'll never know..... and really, some
58 years later it doesn't matter. What matters is that many
pilots wound-up giving their lives in the pursuit of safer aviation.
Many had to die in order for us to be able to learn from their mistakes
... both man and machine, and arrive at the place we find ourselves
today, where flying around the world on jets is no different
than driving your car to the supermarket..... |
I studied every article
written.. too many to post here. And they all agree with two
things: OFFICIAL FINDING AT
THE TIME....
"It was certain
that the accident occurred so swiftly and at such a low altitude that
neither pilot had an opportunity to use the F-86 ejection mechanism
that catapults the pilot from the single-seater craft 80 feet into
the air and gives him an opportunity to use a parachute when trouble
is encountered." |
FINAL
REPORT OF THE CRASH
Two F-86s with
Lt Col Reinhardt leading the formation takeoff, departed Kanawha
County Airport, Charleston, WVa at 1217E (12:17pm)
for an intended, 500 foot on-top IFR flight, direct to Maxwell Field.
Lt Col Reinhardt in F-86 Number 49-1019 was leading. Captain
Evans in F-86, number 48-306 was on Lt Col Reinhardt's right
wing.
At 1220E (12:20pm) they crashed into a mountainside fifteen miles
south of the Kanawha County Airport, 3/4 of a mile east of Emmons,
WVa
Eye witnesses
at the scene of the crash stated that they were in a gentle turn to
the left, and a slight descent, which steepened just before impact.
Both pilots were killed in the crash.
The wreckage
of both aircraft was scattered to the northeast of the impact point
for a distance of approximately 3000 feet. No part of the wreckage
was greater than five or 10 pounds.
The weather at the time of the crash was estimated 3000 overcast,
4 to 5 miles visibility in fog and light rain showers.
Both pilots
were well qualified in fighter type aircraft and in instrument experience.
Both held currently valid green instrument certificates.
It
is impossible to determine the exact cause of the accident. The most
probable cause is that the lead pilot experienced vertigo. |
Here is just
one of a dozen eye witness reports that I
have acquired from the official 108 page government report:
T E S T I M O N Y of Million
J. Bock , given
to Captain James G, Kuntz and Captain Vernon R. Stutta, 25 March 1950,
at Charleston, West Virginia.
Q. Mr. Bock, we understand
that you witnessed the takeoff of the two F-86's and that you had
known Colonel Reinhardt previously.
A. Yea, that is correct.
I knew Colonel Reinhardt from having served with him as a member of
the 15th Air
Force in Italy. I was a B-24 pilot and was acquainted with Colonel
Reinhardt for some time in Italy. He was 15th Air Force Engineering
Maintenance Officer and Test Pilot. I had not seen Colonel Reinhardt
since our service together in Italy in 1945. I read in the paper that
he had landed here at Charleston the afternoon of the 21st and. was
staying over, so I contacted him the morning of the 22nd in the Ruffner
Hotel. He said he was just planning to go out to the airport and asked
me to join him there. He introduced me to Captain Evans.
Q, What time did he arrive
at the airport?
A. It was about 9:30
or 10:00 o'clock, I'm not sure.
Q. Were you with him
while he filed clearance?
A. Yes
Q. Did he or Captain
Evans appear concerned about the weather?
A. I don't think they
were worried about the weather, however, they made a very thorough
check of the
weather. I know that they considered three different flight plans.,
He first wanted to go to St. Louis, but weather was pretty bad, and
then he asked about Memphis. Memphis wasn't too good either and they
finally decided to go to Maxwell.
Q. What were your impressions
of the weather that day?
Well, it looked pretty
bad to me, but, as I said before, both Col. Reinhardt and Capt. Evans
did not appear to be worried about the weather.. In fact, I specifically
asked him how the F-S6 was on instruments. He stated that it was a
beautiful ship in any condition. I also talked to Capt. Evans about
the weather and Capt. Evans stated he had complete confidence in,
not only the airplane, but he respected Col., Reinhardt's experience
and ability. His words were to the effect that, "I .would follow
Col, Reinhardt anywhere". I know what he was talking about because
my earlier association with Col Reinhardt had taught me that he was
one of the finest of pilots. He was very safety conscious and also
exhibited that that morning.` Some one at Operations, I don't remember
who asked him if he would give the airfield a buzz job after takeoff.
He refused emphatically and told them even if the weather had been
CAVU, he wouldn't do it because the flight he was planning did
not leave room for any such exhibitions.
Q. Did you witness the
takeoff, Mr. Book?
A. Yes, I went out with
Col Reinhardt before he started his engines. He was waiting in the
airplane for ARTC clearance before starting the engines.
Q. What were the weather
conditions at that time?
A. It was raining very
hard, both at that time and while they were taxiing out. It stopped
raining just
momentarily before takeoff. It was raining so hard that Col Reinhardt
had to close his canopy and I went back into Operations. His canopy
vas frosted up when he first closed it, but it cleared up when he
started up his engines.
Q. Were you in Operations
at the time of takeoff?
A. No. I went back outside
to watch the takeoff from the ramp.
Q, How did the takeoff
appear to you?
A. They were in good
formation. Col Reinhardt broke ground first; shortly after Capt Evans
broke ground and I lost sight of them immediately after takeoff.
Q. You didn't see their
climb-out after takeoff, did you?
A. No, they disappeared
behind the hangar just after becoming airborne. I didn't get to see
wheels-up. |
Epilogue Old aviation history
has always fascinated me. While some might say "this isn't
THAT old", you must remember that production jet aircraft
had only been in existence for a couple of years at this time.
So now that I have time to pursue things that I didn't before, I enjoy
"discovering" events that most people have already forgotten.
What I find interesting
about this case is the lack of information anywhere on the Internet.
Other than a couple of brief newspaper stories, I couldn't find
anything on these two men. There are no other webpages concerning
this crash as of this writing. There is nothing on the Net to
detail this event out of the thousands of military web sites posted.
Even the Squadrons commemorative web site mentions nothing about the
crash. So who knows what other information may arise from this
simple page, on two guys that seem to be forgotten....
* Also: It has been discovered
that Wheeler Holstein may have been misquoted by the Gazette, or the
Gazette accidentally used another persons comment, as the official
government interview with Mr Holstein states that he claimed there
was absolutely NO contact between the two aircraft. Also:
Mr Holsteins grandson was walking along the road (school was out for
lunch) when he and a friend saw the aircraft fly over their
heads and then straight down. John Holstein was 12 years old at the
time. He told me that he absolutely witnessed both aircraft
flying inverted (upside down) as they flew overhead and crashed.
This is the only witness to that fact, and as John said: "Who
would listen to a kid back in those days?". Plus, his parents
didn't think it appropriate to bother the "government" with
a kids story.
As a side note:
When the power lines were damaged, all power to the area ended, including
the lights and power down in the coal mines. This forced many miners
to find their way back out to daylight as best they could.
|
Finally
PARCELL v. UNITED STATES
November
23, 1951: On March 21, 1950, two jet fighter planes took off from
Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, New Mexico, on a routine flight
to Washington, D. C., and return. One of the planes was operated by
Lieutenant Colonel Arthur F. Reinhardt and the other by Captain George
W. Evans, Jr. Both men were pilots in the United States Air Force. One
plane had been flown a total of 101 hours; the other a total of 130
hours. Reinhardt was 45 years old. He had flown a total of 4,710 hours,
with 25 hours of actual combat time. Evans was 37 years old and had
flown a total of 2,329 hours, of which 244 hours were in actual combat.
Both pilots were qualified for instrument flying, and both planes were
equipped for such flying.
Colonel Reinhardt's last routine
physical examination was in October, 1949, and Captain Evans' in
November, 1948, at which time both were found qualified for flying. The
last known inspection of the planes was made at Kirtland Air Force Base.
Colonel
Reinhardt, who was in charge of the flight, had authority from his
superiors in the United States Air Force to plan and execute flights at
his own discretion, without clearance from any airport authority.
The
flight was made in formation, Colonel Reinhardt acting as lead pilot
and Captain Evans as wing pilot; this being standard procedure followed
in connection with routine flights of jet fighter planes, inasmuch as
one of the primary reasons for such flights is to give the pilots
training and practice in formation flying.
The planes reached
Washington, D. C., and returned as far as Charleston, West Virginia, on
the same day they took off from Albuquerque, New Mexico. They were
landed at an airport near Charleston and the pilots spent the night in
that city. At 12:17 P.M. the following day, the two planes took off in
formation from the airport near Charleston. The flight plan was that
the planes should attain and maintain an altitude of 500 feet above the
clouds, at an air speed of 500 miles per hour. The ceiling at Kanawha
Airport at noon on March 22, 1950, was approximately 3,000 feet, the
visibility was four to five miles, and there were light rain showers.
The velocity of the wind was eight to ten miles per hour, south by
southeast.
An employee of the airport traffic control system
directed Colonel Reinhardt, as flight leader, to climb at an
approximate rate of 5,000 feet per minute and to report upon leaving an
altitude of 10,000 feet. It was observed that the planes began their
flight with a normal angle of climb until they were lost to sight.
Neither Colonel Reinhardt nor Captain Evans reported after take-off.
Between two and three minutes after the take-off from the airport, [104 F.Supp. 112] both
planes crashed about 229 feet apart on a hillside near plaintiff's
residence and on his land, which lies approximately 15 miles south of
the airport. The evidence does not establish which plane crashed in
which spot. A line drawn between the two places of impact and extended
points approximately in the direction of the airport. Along this line
and for a distance of approximately 3,000 feet towards the airport were
scattered small parts of the wreckage of both planes, no single piece
weighing more than ten pounds. Both pilots were killed in the accident
and both planes completely demolished. There was a severe explosion and
this, coupled with flying debris, did considerable damage to the
dwelling house, the barn, and the chicken houses of plaintiff. Large
craters were created at the spot where each of the planes hit the
ground. Almost directly above each crater two sets of high tension
wires were cut.
The elevation above sea level at the airport is 985 feet. The elevation at the site of the crash is 900 to 1,000 feet.
One
corner of the house frame was moved from the foundation wall. One side
wall was bulged out so that it had to be later supported by poles to
keep it from falling. Many of the rafters were split. The windows were
broken. Parts of the chimney and roof were damaged. The house generally
was strained and some portions of it pulled apart; but plaintiff and
his family continued to live in it up to the time of the trial The
concrete foundation of the barn was shaken and broken. One chicken
house was demolished and another damaged.
This action arises
under the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C.A. §§ 1346, 2671, et seq.
With certain limitations not material here, the Act makes the United
States liable for torts committed by its officers, agents, and
employees to the same extent as if it were a private person, under the
law of the place where the act or omission may have occurred.
The
complaint is founded on negligence, which plaintiff says is logically
inferrable both from the circumstances shown in evidence, and also by
use of the res ipsa loquitur doctrine. Another theory, evolved at the
trial, on which plaintiff relies, is the principle of absolute
liability for damages caused by the use of an inherently dangerous
instrumentality or by an extra-hazardous activity.
As is so
often the case in this type of accident, direct, specific, and positive
evidence pointing to what actually happened has been eliminated by the
fatal crash. There were no eyewitnesses. Tongues that might otherwise
have told were silenced. The independent circumstances left in the wake
of the accident are insufficient in themselves to charge defendant with
negligence. We must resort to a presumption or inference attached by
law to the collective circumstances; else we are left in the field of
speculation and conjecture. The doctrine of res ipsa loquitur, if
applicable, supplies this legal inference.
|
I received an e-mail
Nov. 2009 from the grandson of Lt. Col. A.F. Reinhardt. In it
he said:
Thanks for the story.
My grandfather is Arthur F. Reinhardt. He was killed before I was
born in 1955 so I never did know him. My mother and grandmother never
really spoke about it, and they had no articles or any other information
about the crash. At least now I have an idea about what happened. |
Arthur F. Godwin
Turlock, CA
Both were F-86A-5 aircraft,
with the following additional details:
48-306 with construction number 43675, delivered 9 September 1949
to 81st Fighter Group at Kirtland AFB, NM.
49-1019 with construction number
161-13, delivered 7 November 1949, to 81st Fighter Group, Kirtland
AFB, NM. |
SPECIFICATIONS (F-86A):
Span: 37 ft. 1 in.
Length: 37 ft. 6 in.
Height: 14 ft. 8 in.
Weight: 13,791 lbs. loaded
Armament: Six .50-cal. machine guns and eight 5-in. rockets or 2,000
lbs. of bombs
Engine: One General
Electric J47 turbojet of 5,200 lbs. thrust
Cost: $178,000
Crew: One
PERFORMANCE:
Maximum speed: 685 mph
Cruising speed: 540 mph
Range: 1,200 miles
Combat ceiling: 49,000 ft.
The F-86 was developed
in the 1940s following the end of World War II and was one of the
most-produced Western jet fighters in the Cold War era. More
than 6,000 F-86s were manufactured by North American's Los Angeles,
Calif., andColumbus, Ohio, divisions. The first swept-wing airplane
in the U.S. fighter inventory, the F-86 scored consistent victories
over Russian-built MiG fighters during the Korean War, accounting
for a final ratio of 10-to-1. All 39 United Nations jet aces won their
laurels in Sabres.
Forerunner of the operational
Sabre was the XF-86, first flown Oct. 1, 1947, by North American test
pilot George Welch. A few months later Welch became the first pilot
to fly the plane at Mach 1 (the speed of sound) in routine flight.
Although technically rated as subsonic, the Sabre is no stranger to
supersonic speeds. In September 1948, an F-86A set the
Sabre's first official
world speed record of 570 mph. This mark was bettered in 1952 by an
F-86D that flew at 698 mph. The "D" became the first model
of a fighter to better its own record, in 1953, with a run of 715
mph.
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