Evening star., 1941-01-06
Navy Plane 70 Feet
Too Low 10 Miss Peak
Where 11Were Killed
Four Survivors of Bomber
Mishup and Investigators
Were on Way TO Sun Diego
Ey the Associated Press.

Ey the Associated Press.
SAN DIEGO, Jan. 6.-Civil and
naval officials, poking through the
scattered wreckage Of $4,000
Navy transport plane. asserted to-
day that had the big ship been
flying 20 feet higher 1t would have
cleared the rugged Mother Grundy
range and reached its destination
only 20 miles away with all II oc-
cupantS safe.
The Navy arranged for an official
investigation of the crash that killed
everybody aboard, including four
who had escaped death only last
Thursday in a Texas bomber mis-
hap.
Civilian aviation observers gen.
orally blamed weather conditions.
A low ceiling and dense fog made
flying conditions hazardous in the
area, some 35 miles southeast OF
here, and reports of neighboring
ranches led to a belief the pilot
might have gotten off his radio beam.
Heard Plane Being "Gunned."
Residents of the Simpson Ranch 2
miles from White Mountain, the
crash scene, said they heard plane
being "gunned" to gain altitude a
few moments before they heard an
explosion, and this brought the OBJ
servation that a pilot off his beam,
believing himself over San Diego
because of a zone of silence, might
have started down, realized his posi-
ton and attempted to climb out Of
danger.
The craft struck just 20 feet
below the ridge, exploded and
burned. Wreckage was hurled over
the top of the 3,000-foot granite
summit and scattered over half
mile area.
The wreckage was found at 7;30
am. Yesterday, about 13 hours after
the crash.
Cavalrymen. bluejackets and
c. C. c. boys aided in the seven
hour task of carrying the victims,
wrapped in blankets, down the
mountain through sagebrush 10 feet
high in places.
Carried Crash Investigators.
The big plane, en- route to the
naval air station here, carried three
members of a Board Of Inquiry ap-
pointed to investigate the Texas
accident, and the four survivors OF
that previous mishap.
The four had parachuted to safety
when their bomber, being ferrled
from here to Pensacola, Fla, by
way of Corpus Christi, Tex, en-
countered a severe storm. A fifth
crew member "bailed OUT but was
killed when his chute failed to open
The pilot and co-pilot, 1t. Murray
Hanson and Ensign Robert B. Clark.
who risked their lives to ride out
the storm and land the ship on a
small pond, proved ultimately to be
the only survivors of the seven
aboard the bomber.
Friday morning, the big naval
transport, carrying three officers
assigned as an inquiry board into
the Texas mishap, flew to Big
Spring. After the officers had IN
vestigated the bomber's plight, the
four survivors, three of whom were
injured, were transferred to the
transport. One of them Frank
Recke, jr., was brought from the
hospital by ambulance.
List of Victims.
The dead were 1t. Comdr. Joseph
Henry GoWan, 81, Head Hill, Ark,
pilot; David Everett Ferguson, SO,
Neponset, w. Va, co-pilot; 1t.
Comdr. Stephen Bland Cooke, AZ,
Harrison, Ark; 1t. Victor S. Gaulln,
"a, Lowell, Mass, and 1t. James
Cyril Flemming, 36, Reading, Pa,
members of the Board of Inquiry;
Mr.. Recke, 80, National City. Calf;
l.. j. Hughes, 80, Grand Rapids,
Mich; H. E Neff, "a, San Diego,
and A. M. Parry, 81, Los Angeles,
survivors of the Texas mishap, and
Marvin Magee, 80, Long Branch, N.
j.. and Frank Richard Naylor, Is,
Dayton, KY, crew members Of the
wrecked transport plane.
Rancher Heard Crash.
Charles T. Simpson, the rancher
who sent out first word of the acci-
dent, gave a reporter the following
eyewitness account:
MY wife and I were finishing
supper. 1t was around o'clock.
"All at once we heard a big air
planes motors, and went out to
look. We couldn't see the ship.
Fact is, we couldn't rightly see the
mountain tops for mist.
THE motor sounded fainter. Then
it happened. We heard a crash
like a building falling down.
1--WE can't see the top of White
Mountain from my place because
there's crest in the way. But
over the crest we could see fire color