Evening star., 1938-11-19
Six Are Killed
AsArn1yBomber
Falls in Georgia
Crash in Heavy Storm
Injuries Another;
One Is Missing
Dy the Associated Press.

LA GRANGE, Ga, NOV. lS.-Tne
stormbred crash Of twin-engined
Army bombing plane in an isolated
woodland last night killed six Army
flyers and severely injured another.
An eighth man believed aboard
the big air destroyer when 1t went
down in a driving rain was unac-
counted for and searchers feared his
body was in the still smouldering
wreckage.
The heavy ship was on routine
flight from Mitchell Field, N. Y,
to Maxwell Field at Montgomery,
Ala, when 1t was caught late last
night in one of many downpours
that swept across the South.
A Negro heard the crash and saw
the flames rising from timber
thicket 7 miles northeast of here
about 10 O'Clock last night.
He came here for help, but it was
hours before rescuers could force
along mud-bogged dirt road and
through a 2-mile country lane to
the crash scene, where the craft
had plowed a 150-yard path through
pine trees.
Bodies Are Located.
-Four bodies soon we're found
within few yards of the smoking
debris. nth was discovered in
the wreckage later and the twisted
metal still resisted efforts to locate
another body late this morning.
Second 1t. John Madre and Pvt.
Joseph j. Nanartowich were brought
into hospital here and Pvt. Nam
artowich died a few hours later. 1t.
Madre was badly hurt and physl-
clans said he might die.
Immediate Identification of the
bodies found at the plane was impos-
sible because they were badly burned
Army officers hurried here from
Maxwell Field to investigate the
tragedy, one of the worst in military
aviation history.
Eight Men Aboard Plane.
Air Corps officers here announced
the following were aboard the plane
when it left Mitchell Field:
Crew:
Second 1t. r. Kirkland Black, Air
Corps; Second 1t. Rof McKechnie,
Air Reserve; Second 1t. Allan M.
Howery, Air Reserve: Second 1t.
John D. Madre, Air Reserve; Staff
6ergt. Harry T. Jones, goth Bom-
bardment Squadron. and Pvt. Joseph
J. Nanartowich, 99th Bombardment
Squadron.
Passengers to Maxwell Field, en-
route to home stations:
First 1t. James w. Stewart. Med
ical Corps, and Corpl. Galloway,
Sd Weather Squadron, Dallas, Tex,
initials unavailable.
Crashed in Heavy Rain.
The ship crashed in : heavy rain,
which was measured at the La
Grange Weather Station at 1.20
inches in a few hours last night.
Apparently the pilot had turned of
his course for Maxwell Field and
was trying to make an emergency
landing field near here.
Cars and trucks of rescuers, noti-
ded of the wreck by Negro who
heard the crash and saw the flames,
begged down on the muddy, unpaved
road.
The big ship ploughed into a
timber thicket, chopping path
through large pine trees about $50
yards long. Some of the trees
snapped of would measure II to IA
inches in diameter, witnesses re-
ported.
Plane of New Type.
The ship was "B-1s-A" two
motored, mid-wing Douglas bomber,
newly delivered to the Air Corps by
the Douglas Aircraft Co., Santa
Monica, Calf. The type is a mill
tary adaptation of the DC 2" Doug
las commercial transport first manu-
factured in 1885 and is third largest
of Air Corps bombers, exceeded in
weight, size by Bit" or flying
fortress" and BIS" or super
flying fortress" It is equipped with
belly bomb racks, machine gun in
the nose and another in a turret at
the aft end of the fuselage. 1t.
Black was from Garden City, N. Y.