page_title: Charles F. Blair Jr.
section_title: Death
hierarchical_section_title: Charles F. Blair Jr. / Death
caption_attribution_description: English: American Aircraft in Royal Air Force Service 1939-1945- Grumman Goose. Goose Mark I, MV993, of No. 24 Squadron RAF based at Hendon, Middlesex, in flight. This aircraft was formerly G-AFKJ, owned by Lord Beaverbrook.
context_page_description: Charles F. Blair Jr. was an aviation pioneer who helped work out the routes and navigation techniques necessary for long distance flights. He served as a reserve officer, early in his career for the United States Navy, reaching the rank of Captain, and later for the United States Air Force, reaching the rank of Brigadier General. He died in a transportation accident in the Caribbean while captaining a Grumman Goose seaplane for his airline, Antilles Air Boats.
context_section_description: On 2 September 1978 Blair was piloting a Grumman G21 "Goose" on Antilles Air Boats Flight 941, a routine passenger flight traveling north from St. Croix to St. Thomas. The sole pilot, Blair was carrying 10 passengers, including a 13 year old boy who was seated next to Blair in the co-pilot's seat. Near the end of the short flight the port engine suffered catastrophic failure. The piston of the No. 5 cylinder broke, causing the cylinder to break loose from its mounting. The cylinder struck the engine cowling, breaking it off its mountings on the port nacelle. Blair was five miles out from St Thomas, flying at 1,700 feet. He immediately feathered his port propeller and shut down the engine, while adding power to the starboard in an attempt to maintain level flight. The plane should have been able to maintain its altitude on one engine, but in the event the aircraft began losing height. Blair notified the St. Thomas tower that he had lost an engine, and that he would need assistance. When the tower responded Blair said he would land in the protected waters of the West Gregerie Channel, and he requested a boat to pick up his passengers. Overhearing the calls, a second Antilles Air Boats aircraft that happened to be in the vicinity approached from above and gained visual contact. The sea was rough, with a 15 to 20 knot wind from the southeast generating white caps and swells of 5 to 6 feet.
  Blair was unable to maintain level flight on the single functioning engine and was losing 300 to 400 feet of altitude a minute. There were two main reasons for this: the propeller mounted to the starboard engine had suffered from pitting and corrosion. The maintenance crew had resurfaced it to remove the defects, but the aerodynamic shape of the propeller had not been maintained. In addition, the separated cowling on the port side caused a marked increase in drag. 
  Though losing altitude, Blair believed he could still fly the plane. He anticipated gaining extra lift from the ground effect off the water once he got down on the deck. Among the pilots at Antilles Air Boats the broadly held belief was if they were limited to one engine they would not go down, as they could use ground effect to stay aloft. Their collective faith in this concept was documented in the company's papers. Though real, the added lift of ground effect is less robust if the surface is irregular. 
  Blair did not give emergency instructions to the passengers nor did he tell them to prepare for a water landing. It appeared he had rejected this idea and set his sights on getting the aircraft closer to shore. He never turned the plane into the wind. He never reduced power nor lowered flaps. The wind coming from the southeast provided a considerable tailwind to Blair's aircraft, increasing his speed relative to the surface of the water. Blair focused on keeping the aircraft in the air. It soon proved he was unable to do so. The plane contacted the chopped conditions of the ocean's surface at a high speed, with the starboard wing low. Bounding off the first contact, it traveled 3 or 4 plane lengths in the air and then came back down. When it did the float on the port wing buried itself in the water. The plane cartwheeled around it and into the ocean, breaking apart and settling upside down in the water. It sank in a matter of minutes. No one was killed from the impact of the crash, but Blair and three of his passengers drowned. The aircraft settled to the bottom in 85 feet of water. Surviving passengers were soon picked up by local boats. One passenger suffered a compression fracture to his first lumbar vertebra. All the rest suffered minor cuts and bruises.
caption: A Grumman G-21 similar to the one Blair was flying on the day of his accident
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