Fredricksburg, Pennsylvania Airplane Crash
April
5, 1936
PLANE CRASH KILLS FIVE
Quintet of Army Fliers Burned to Death as Bomber
Hits Mountain in Rain Storm, Bursts Into Flames
Fredricksburg, Pa., April 6,--AP-- In a
tangled mass of wreckage--the remains of a
once-trim bombing plane-- the army today found
the charred bodies of five flying soldiers,
missing for hours on their return from a
week-end hop to Cleveland.
A storm caught the big twin-motored ship as it
took off from Pottstown on the last leg of its
trip back to Langley Field, Va., last night,
buffeted it far off its course and smashed it
against the heavily timbered Blue Mountains,
killing its entire crew.
Flames Consumed Ship
Flames burst from the bomber as it crashed, and
kept would-be rescuers from any attempts to save
the trapped pilot and his flying companions.
At Langley Field today, the names of the victims
were given as:
LIEUT. STETSON BROWN, St Johnsbury, Vt.
STAFF SERGT. ERNEST ENDY, Oley, Pa.
PRYT. ARTHUR METZ, Route 8, Chambersburg, Pa.
PRYT. WILLIAM YOST, 52 Fraser avenue, McKees
Rock, Pa.
CADET PAUL AMSPAUGH, 6801 Euclid avenue,
Cleveland, O.
The bodies, charred beyond recognition, were
taken from the wreck soon after dawn and placed
in an ambulance for a trip through a driving
rainstorm to an undertaking parlor in Lebanon. A
military and police guard was thrown around the
wreck until the salvage crews arrived from the
U. S. Army Air depot at Middletown.
The flyers were not only beset by rains and
storm, but seemed to have been flying blindly
through a thick fog, for the craft sheared a
100-foot wide path through the tree-tops before
plunging its nose into the side of the steep
mountain, 250 feet from its peak.
Plane Bounced About
The rough weather apparently had tossed the
heavy plane about as easily as if it were a
feather. It was almost 50 miles off its course.
Leaving Pottstown on what ordinarily is an hours
flight due south to Langley Field, the
flame-swept bomber was found 50 miles to the
west of its flying route, a few miles north of
here, near the Berks-Lebanon county line in
east-central Pennsylvania.
The five soldiers had started out from Langley
Field Saturday, stopping at Pottstown to let
ENDY out for he lived nearby. The other four
then continued on to Cleveland. They landed at
Pottstown again last evening to pick up ENDY on
the way back, and then took off in a rainstorm.
The Daily Times-News, Burlington, NC 6
Apr 1936
Transcribed by Edna
Schlauch.
Thank you, Edna!
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