Evening star., 1946-08-23
Downed u. S. Transport Pilot
BIomes Confusion on SiqnoIs
Did Not Understand
Rocking Of Wings,
Flyer Declares
BY the Associated Press

BY the Associated Press
GOR1Z1A, Italy, Aug. 23.-The
pilot OF the United States Army
transport plane forced down in
Yugoslavia two weeks ago said
today that he failed to under
stand the signals of two Yugo-
slav fighter planes which later
forced him down with gunfire.
THE fighter planes flew arounG
us a couple of times" said Capt
William Crombie of East Long
meadow, Mass. "One rocked its
wings. I was told after I landed
that that was the international sig
nal to land, but in the American
and British Air Forces that means
assembly.
Il did not know what they meant
They kept diving at us and pulling
away"
Capt. Crombie recalled that he
had flown % missions over Marshal
Titos country during the war to
drop sorely needed supplies, but
this was the first flight over the
Vienna-Udine route, on which a
second unarmed United States
Army transport was shot down last
Monday with possibly five American
fatalities.
Bullet Pierced Tail.
| Capt. Crombie was set free YES
terday with three crewmen and two
military and three civilian passen-
gers after an angry American ulti-
matum was issued to Yugoslavia.
Capt. Crombie said one of the
Yugoslav bullets went through the
tail of his transport just above the
left rudder, gravely wounding one of
the passengers "a Turkish captain)
whose name was not disclosed.
The other occupants of the plane
had to leave the wounded man be-
hind in a hospital at Liublajana
headquarters of the Yugoslav 4th
Army.
Capt. Crombie said he crash land
ed his plane in small cornfield
and that no one else was injured.
The plane was wrecked.
"The weather was bad the day we
took off," Capt. Crombie said in an
interview, closely shepherded by an
American security officer who speci-
fed that the conversation be so con-
Quoted as not to prejudice future
handling of the American diplomatic
case against Yugoslavia.
"We were supposed to take of
at $50 am, but we were held up
until $50. There was a good hole
in the clouds above the field then. u
He said he was supposed to fly in
a 10-mile corridor from Vienna to
a lake. thence to Graz, to Hagen-
furt, to Travisio and Udine.
Il flew contact as far as the lake
and then I started to climb to get
above the Clouds" he said. "At
Is 500 feet I was over some Of the
weather. 1t closed in and I went on
instruments, although there were oc-
casional breaks in the clouds. I
would have gone back, but it was
getting worse behind"
Asked for Bearing.
He said he recognized the Austrian
city of Klagenfurt and set his course
slightly north of west. He had his
radio operator ask the Udine airport
for a bearing. He was deferred, :"
because the airport was working an
other plane. So he few west for
Is minutes until he thought he was
north of Udine. He was then at
$4,000 feet and he was passing an
oxygen bottle back and forth with
his co-pilot, 1t. Bill McNew of At
lanta, Ga.
! THE clouds broke a little and I
began to see the ground" Capt.
Crombie went on. 81 spotted a
small river running to the south
east. thought from the map that
we were then northwest of Udine,
so I changed the course to the
southeast"
: 1t was then, the pilot said, that
"a fighter plane dived on us"
Il thought it was British ship"
he related, Il said hello on the
interphone, but there was no answer.
II continued southeast and I saw
two other fighters. From their mark
ings, I recognized them as Yugoslav
fighters. Then I knew was over
Yugoslav territory.
Everything happened then"
! Then he related how a fighter
rocked its wings, how he failed to
understand the signal and how the
| fighters started diving at him. He
continued:
Il circled town which I later
found out was Ljubljana-which l
thought might be Udine and at
$4,000 feet I let down.
Saw Tracer Bursts.
That was when I saw the first
burst of machinegun fire, although
others in the plane said there had
been an earlier one. I saw six
tracers burst. Some of the bullets
hit just above the left rudder.
There was no damage to the
ship. But that was when the Turk
ish captain was hit. A bullet went
through his back, came out just
over his heart, and shattered his
WRIST. They say he is still living
| don't see how, for he lost lot of
blood"
Capt. Crombie said he sent the
co-pilot back to put the parachutes
on the passengers, but when the
4ugoslavs dived again he decided
TO get down as fast as he could.
i picked little cornfield about
10 miles northwest of LjubIjana