page_title: List of accidents and incidents involving military aircraft (1945–1949)
section_title: 1947
hierarchical_section_title: List of accidents and incidents involving military aircraft (1945–1949) / 1947
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of the B-29 "Kee Bird"; crashed in Greenland in February 1947.
context_page_description: This is a list of accidents and incidents involving military aircraft which occurred between 1945 and 1949, grouped by the year in which the accident or incident occurred. Not all of the aircraft were in operation at the time. Combat losses are not included except for a very few cases denoted by singular circumstances.
context_section_description: 15 January
  An RCAF Beechcraft with five Air Force personnel and one civilian aboard develops engine trouble and crashes about halfway between Watson Lake and Whitehorse in the Yukon. All are killed.
  20 January
  "Rotan, Tex., Jan 20, (AP) -  Two persons were killed and three injured in the crash of an army B-29 nine miles southwest of Rotan today. Six survivors parachuted from the craft, which was being ferried from Smoky Hil army air field, Salina, Kas., to Pyote, Tex., army air field. Three of these received only minor injuries. Lt. E. R. Henningsen, of Salina, pilot of the plane, who received minor cuts on his leg, identified the dead as Lt. Leonard J. Davenport of Ithaca, N. Y., and Tech. Sgt. Basil L. Joseph of Salina. Lt. Paul Taylor, the navigator, and Sgt. James W. Felkel also were injured."
  20 January
  A Douglas R5D Skymaster, operated by the Naval Air Transport Service, crashes while making a ground control approach to fog-bound Oakland Airport, California, when it strikes an embankment and disintegrates as it slides down the runway after the undercarriage was sheared off. Despite this, 20 of 21 aboard survive, although with injuries. A WAVE medical corpsman is the only fatality.
  26 January
  "MANILA, Jan. 29 (Wednesday). (AP) - The 13th air force announced today that Lt. Calvin G. Fuller, Macon, Ga., and Cpl. Winfield H. Mobley, Hazelhurst, [sic] Ga., were killed Sunday in the crash of their training plane one mile north of the army's air base on Palawan."
  27 January
  United States Army Air Forces Silverplate Boeing B-29-36-MO Superfortress, 44-65385, of the 428th Base Unit, Kirtland Army Air Field, New Mexico, for Los Alamos bomb development testing, crashed immediately after take-off from Kirtland on routine maintenance test flight. No specific cause is documented – a fire in one engine and the pilot's failure to compensate for loss of power is believed to have caused the accident. Twelve crew KWF.
  28 January
  Two Vought F4U Corsairs collide in flight 12 miles S of Cecil Field, Jacksonville, Florida, killing one pilot and injuring the other when he bails out. Dead is Lt. (j. g.) Jacob E. Lieb, USNR, 28, Newhall, Iowa. Ens. Donald Loranger, USNR, 22, of Hanford, California, suffers a broken leg in his bail out.
  28 January
  "ROSWELL, N. M., Jan 28. (AP) - Capt. Shester H. Bohart, B-29 Superfortress pilot at Roswell army airfield, said he thought the shooting was all over. Now he's not so sure. Taxiing toward the runway, Bohart noticed a tire going flat. Inside the tire mechanics found an Indian arrowhead."
  February
  Second prototype Curtiss XBTC-2, BuNo 31402, of only two built, crashes at NATC Patuxent River, Maryland, during testing of full-span Duplex wingflaps and dual rotation propellers.
  18 February
  The USS Cusk becomes the world's first submarine to launch a guided missile when it fires a Republic-Ford JB-2, which then crashes after flying only 6,000 yards, due to an apparent control malfunction.
  21 February
  United States Army Air Forces Boeing B-29-95-BW Superfortress, 45-21768, "Kee Bird", modified to F-13 reconnaissance role, of the 46th/72d Reconnaissance Squadrons, on mission out of Ladd Field, Alaska, runs out of fuel due to a navigational error and is forced to land in a remote area of northern Greenland. The aircrew is rescued unharmed 3 days later, but the plane is abandoned in place. The accident achieves continuing notability for the exceptionally fortuitous rescue and later for a well-publicized and ultimately disastrous 1994 recovery attempt.
  7 March
  Five airmen baled out of a C-45 Expeditor at the height of a thunderstorm when the plane ran out of fuel. The plane crashed near Youngstown, Florida. According to public relations officials' report, weather conditions forced the pilot to deviate from his original flight plan of a proposed navigation training mission to Nashville, Tennessee. Four of the airmen were rescued. However, it took several days to locate the body of Maj. David A. Smiley of Tyndall Field.
  26 March
  Prototype Convair XB-36 Peacemaker, 42-13570, on test flight out of Fort Worth Army
caption: Kee Bird down on the ice, taken February 1947
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