Evening star., 1950-10-20
Navy Sends Divers
To Lower Potomac
To Search for 7 JETS


Potomac River about 10 miles
south Of Quantico, Va, for the
wreckage of two Air Force F-86
jet fighter planes.
Searching parties are convinced
they have located the spot where
the two jets flying in tight forma-
ton with a third plane, were seen
knitting into the river during
routine training flight Wednesday,
The injured pilot of the third jet
reported that his plane bounced
off the water and crashed on a
farm Is miles away near Alden. Va.
Pilots Identified.
Andrews Air Force Base officials
identified the two missing pilots
as:
I'd 1t. Cornelius P. Mills, jr., %,
son of Mr.. and Mrs. c. P. Mills,
of Dunn Loring road, Merri-
field, Va.
1st 1t. Joseph w. Russell, Is,
son of Mr.. and Mrs. j. w. Rus
sell of Westfeld, Mass. His ad-
dress was given as 3134 Parkway
terrace on Suitland drive. where
his wife, the former Miss Jean
Mattoon, lives.
Joint Operation.
Entrance of the Navy divers
into the search turned the opera
ton into a joint Air Force Marine
Corps-Navy project. Request for
the divers came from officials of
the Air Forces Air-Sea Rescue
Service of Westover Field, Mass.
The Potomac River Naval Com
mand announced that a diving
launch from the United States
Navy Diving School left the Naval
Gun Factory at BIS o'clock this
morning. The launch. carrying
II men-most of them qualified
divers-is commanded by 1t. j. H.
Mcdonald.
Grapplers on Job.
At about the same time, a Ma
rine launch left the Quantico base
with eight men to begin graphing
in about 16 feet of water. A
heavy morning fog all but OBJ
scured the river area.
The searchers are concentrat-
ing on an area near the Maryland
shore. 10 miles south of Quantico
and across the river from the
mouth of Potomac Greek. Water
depths in the area range from
16 to "a feet.
It was there that a Marine
crash boat late yesterday sighted
an oil slick. Shortly after, the
searchers found an oxygen tank,
pieces Of wood fragments believed
to have come from the planes and
pages from manual for operat-
ing F-86s.
Evidence Held Conclusive.
At first. the Air Force planned
to send samples from the oil slick
to Andrews, home base Of the
crashed fighter planes, to deter
mine if the oil was of the type
used in the speedy jets. AS the
other bits of apparently conclu-
sive evidence were picked out of
the water, however, officials con-
cluded they had pin-pointed the
crash area.
The deSolate river area also was
near the spot where Carl Newton,
a Potomac Creek (Va) fisherman,
told officials he saw a huge spray
flying up from the Potomac, ap-
parently when the planes hit.
Was Tending Nets.
Mr.. Newton, who lives 8 miles
east of Fredericksburg, said he
was tending his nets off Potomac
Creek. Around noon he heard |
the roar of planes above heavy
fog bank that covered one of the
loneliest stretches of the Potomac.
Then I saw them break through
the fog. They were coming al
most straight down. They hit
the water about three-quarters of
a mile away from me-" he said.
Two of them went straight
into the river. There was a third
plane little behind the others.
I can't definitely say he hit the
water because he was hidden by
the spray.
Disappeared Into Fog.
But he did come out of it, and
I've never seen a plane go up
sleeper in my life. He disap-
peared into the fog in a south
westerly direction" Mr.. Newton
said.
The third plane was the one
which continued on to belly-land
near Alden, Va, with the pilot. 1t.
Luther c. Barcus. jr., %, surviv-
ing.
After the spray settled down
I only saw some fragments on