Evening star., 1945-11-14
Air, Ground Search
Continues for Four
Lost in Plane Crash

An intensive air and ground
search was continuing today along
q 10-mile stretch of the Potomac
River for four missing occupants OF
a Navy plane which crashed Mon
day night in the fog near the In
dianhead (Md.l Naval Powder Fac
tory after running out Of fuel.
Names Of the missing were re-
leased by the Navy this morning.
They are:
Comdr. Frederick B. Hall, IS, of
st. Louis, whose local address is
1920 Thirty-flrst street NV.
1t. Comdr. David F. Leavitt, 48,
Of the same local address, whose
mother lives in Chicago.
1t. Comdr. Fred H. Covington, 80,
pilot of the plane, Wadesboro, NJ c.,
whose address Is 2618 Thirty first
street N. w.
These three are attached to the
Navy Departments Bureau of Aero
nautics.
An officer tentatively identified as
a 1t. q. g. Becksamier was also
listed.
Personnel of all services, including
the Coast Guard, were among more
than 4,500 persons searching the
woods along the river, it was re-
ported. -
Seven Planes Scour Area.
The Navy said seven airplanes
maintained a constant vigil over the
area yesterday afternoon and that
the operation was continuing today
Bad weather interrupted the air
search last night.
Two survivors are 1t. Comdr
Henry Meers, 81, of 6450 Brooks
lane, Brookmont, Md, attached to
the Bureau of Aeronautics here, and
WAVE 1t. Caroline Bohannon, 173e
N street NV, of the materiel di-
vision of the Office of the Assistant
Secretary of the Navy. His home
town is Evanston, ILL.,; hers, Miami
Fla.
They told reporters yesterday
about their first and they hope, their
last parachute jump.
Describes Experience.
Somebody asked 1t. Bohannon
whether she had trouble getting
out of her parachute harness after
landing in the water.
YES she said, quite a lot. 1t
was all so new, somehow. Suddenly
there I was in the water. It was
quite a shock. My first reaction
was thankfulness I hadn't broken
any bones, but I didn't feel so good
about it after I'd spent about 10
minutes trying to get out of all
those straps. I had no idea where
I was-Chesapeake Bay or some
river, didn't know.
II saw two lights" she continued,
"but they seemed long way off
so I swan toward darkness. ]
didn't seem to be getting anywhere
though, SO after a while I turned
around and swan toward the lights
It wasn't until I had been in the
water about 80 or 40 minutes that
the thought came to me that if ]
called for help my voice might car
ry to the shore. After that yelled
intermittently.
Saw Fishing Boat.
Then finally I saw a dark form
pass between me and the lights
That was when I really started to
yell. 1t was a fishing boat, and it
came over to me, putting of a
dinghy to pick me up. They asked
me if wanted to come along with
them, and at first / accepted, but
when Ifound out those lights were at
Indianhead I told them I was prac-
tically home, and they rowed me
over there in the dinghy"
1t. Bohannon said the boat that
picked her up was the Mildred of
Alexandria. Mr.. Simmons, the skip
per, first thought 1t was cat and
looked about the deck for one, finally
realizing it was somebody calling
from the water, she said.
She said she had no inkling, up
to the time she was told to strap
on her parachute, that the plane
was in serious difficulty.
Officer Tells of Jump.
1t. Comdr. Meers denied previous
reports that the pilot had indicated
he would 60 down with the plane
He said the pilot told him he would
follow Immediately. He added that
shortly after he jumped he heard a
loud report which sounded like an
other parachute opening.
He told reporters he jumped just
before the pilot and observed that
all four parachutes of other occu-
pants of the plane opened correctly
and that the jumpers successfully
cleared the tail of the plane.
The plane was cleared for a Wash
ington landing by the Richmond air.
field at $50 pm, 1t. Comdr. Meers
said He said he supposed the
weather had shut down here after
that.
1t was not true that the Quanticc
field refused to let them try a land
ing, he added. Actually. the diff
Guilty was that they were un.
able to find the field because of fog
conditions, and did not believe they
had enough gasoline to take them to
Richmond. The jump was from ap.
1roximately $500 feet.
1t. Comdr Meers was himself q
flyer in private life, but has done nc
flying for the Navy. Landing neal