Evening star., 1938-11-20
Bad Weather Blamed
In Army Plane Crash
That Killed Seven
Eighth Body Hurt in One
Of Worst Tragedies Of
MiIitory Aviotion
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
LAGRANGE, Ga, Nov. 19.-Tossed
by battering rainstorm, a big Army
bomber smashed up in a West
Georgia forest last night killing
seven fiiers in one of the worst trag-
edies in the history of military avia-
tion. An eighth was gravely injured.
The ship, q new tWo-motored,
mid-Wing Douglas, was on a routine
flight from Mitchell Field, N. Y, to
Maxwell Field, Ala. So isolated was
the spot where it crashed the news
did not reach the outside world
until today.
Maj. w. A. Maxwell, Maxwell Field
operations manager who hurried
here to investigate. said from what
he was able to piece together from
crew member conscious until his
death in a Lagrange hospital, bad
weather was the only apparent ex-
planation."
The crew member was Private
Joseph j. Nanartawich.
Bounced. and Hit Trees.
1--WE were flying low to get under
the ceiling Maj. Maxwell said the
soldier related. 1T was raining. Sud-
| denly we hit rough spot Cappar-
emily downward air current) and
bounced. Next thing I knew the
plane was ploughing through the
trees. No mechanical defects so far
as I could tell"
Brought to the hospital also by a
rescue crew that slittered over
muddy roads and up a wooded slope
TO reach the plane was Second 1t.
John D. Madre. He was still alive
tonight but unconscious.
The plane, the investigators said,
apparently was going about 200
miles an hour when it rammed the
forest seven miles northeast of here.
1t cut path $50 yards long through
trees, some of them as big around as
mans body.
One Tried to Use Chute.
Four bodies were found within a
few yards of the smoking debris,
three others in the wreckage One
apparently had made a futile at
tempt to use his parachute. It
trailed open beside him.
One Of the planes two motors was
catapulted out of the woods where
the crash occurred into a bordering
cornfield.
Bodies of the victims were iden-
titled tonight by It. Col A. Serum.
a dentist connected with Maxwell
Field at Montgomery. Ala, through
use of teeth records.
On a stretcher bodies of the VIC
TINS were carried to a country lane
that led 2 miles to a highway.
They were transported over
muddy road in an old farm truck
which the rescue crew had to push
over some of the worst spots.
Maj. Maxwell said Pvt Nanarto-
wich told him there were seven
aboard the ship when it crashed.
although her clearance papers
showed eight aboard On this in
formation he ordered the search
for the eighth stopped at one time
today. After a check showed none
had left the plane. however, he
later ordered it resumed. Just be-
fore nightfall the last body was
found a charred mass under the
twisted wreckage
Bodies Torn.
| The bodies were so torn and
charred only two of the dead be-
sides Pvt. Nanartowich were i'm
mediately identified. They we're
Second 1t Robert Ross McKechnie
/ of the Air Reserve. son of Mrs Eliza
/ beth McKechnie of Cleveland. Ohio.
and First 1t. James w. Stewart of
/ the Army Medical Corps, son Of
/ Mrs. A. L. Stewart of East Orange,
N. j.. assigned to Randolph Field,
/ Texas, and en- route home.
| Maxwell Field officers announced
| the names of the others and their
nearest of kin and home towns ss
follows: Second 1t. Robert Kirkland
Black. mother, Mrs. r. Black Of
Meridian, Ga: Second 1t. Allen M.
Howery, son of Lewis B. Howery Of
Russellville, Tenn; Sergt. Harry T..
Jones of Hempsted, Long Island. and
Corporal Galloway, assigned to Sd
Weather Squadron at Dallas. 1ni-
tials were not available but a Cor
poral Jerry E. Galloway was re-
ported on furlough from the squad
ron. The latter is the son Of j. c.
Galloway of Sulphur Springs, Texas.