More Photos of Hawaii
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Deleted User 62
Re: "Is that a toy plane in a field of maui wowie?"
Wow, I just realized that all those odd looking plants around the plane are: fern trees! I've never seen so many in one place!
Re: More Photos of Hawaii
Way cool photo Tim, the plane is quite intact for a crash in that terrain.
Lord of the Bings
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Deleted User 287
More about that plane
From one of the links I provided earlier:
The crew was shook up, but miraculously only one crew member suffered a minor injury. During the night the crew endured cold and rain in total darkness. Following the crash the crew made sure that all power to the aircraft was turned off and then tried to get some rest. One airman who was riding in the bombardier compartment located in the aircraft nose section opened the lower hatch and tried to lower himself out to find his feet did not touch anything solid, so he pulled back inside and warned the rest of the crew to not attempt dropping out of that hatch until daylight. The next morning they discovered the plane's nose section jutted out over a 75-foot deep ravine. The crew later described the crash as a “miracle escape.”
On one of the other B-18s in the group was Lee Webster, a Flight Engineer, on his first night navigation mission. Lee Webster gave this account of the accident, “I was just becoming accustomed to the eerie feeling of night flying by the time we started our second leg of the triangle toward a point somewhere off the northern tip of the island and to this point radio contact led us to believe we were in good shape. Suddenly that was shattered by a report from one of the other planes having engine problems and then soon after a report of engine failure and that they were losing altitude. We immediately broke off our mission to accompany the disabled aircraft into Hilo airport, but to make matters worse we flew into some very bad weather. After what seemed a short period of time we lost radio contact with them and when attempts to locate the lost plane became futile we returned to Hickam Field.”
The next morning at dawn a massive search and rescue operation was launched from Hickam Field using 24 bombers. The aircraft wreck was soon spotted at nine in the morning. Later in the day the downed aircrew received an airdrop from Army planes of blankets, food and hot coffee. Wednesday night was much more comfortable for the crew who spend another night in the tropical forest.
A ground rescue operation was organized from Upolu Point, Suiter Field and started out Thursday morning at dawn. The rescuers followed the Kohala Ditch Trail from Kaukini Camp for 2 ½ hours on horseback, but then had to cut a new trail on foot for eight miles through marshland and heavy brush for another four hours before nearing the crash site. The rescuers fired revolvers into the air and then listened for a reply. They were about to give up, when they finally heard a reply by the crew who used a burst of machine gun fire and colored flares which guided the rescuers to the crash site. The rescue party reached the crash scene at noon. Airmen from Hickam later described the site as the “Worst possible place for a forced landing in the Islands.”
At the time only the bombsight and instruments were salvaged from the wreck. Due to its location, it was decided that any further salvage of the aircraft was impossible.
http://pacaeropress.websitetoolbox.com/ ... stcount=10
The crew was shook up, but miraculously only one crew member suffered a minor injury. During the night the crew endured cold and rain in total darkness. Following the crash the crew made sure that all power to the aircraft was turned off and then tried to get some rest. One airman who was riding in the bombardier compartment located in the aircraft nose section opened the lower hatch and tried to lower himself out to find his feet did not touch anything solid, so he pulled back inside and warned the rest of the crew to not attempt dropping out of that hatch until daylight. The next morning they discovered the plane's nose section jutted out over a 75-foot deep ravine. The crew later described the crash as a “miracle escape.”
On one of the other B-18s in the group was Lee Webster, a Flight Engineer, on his first night navigation mission. Lee Webster gave this account of the accident, “I was just becoming accustomed to the eerie feeling of night flying by the time we started our second leg of the triangle toward a point somewhere off the northern tip of the island and to this point radio contact led us to believe we were in good shape. Suddenly that was shattered by a report from one of the other planes having engine problems and then soon after a report of engine failure and that they were losing altitude. We immediately broke off our mission to accompany the disabled aircraft into Hilo airport, but to make matters worse we flew into some very bad weather. After what seemed a short period of time we lost radio contact with them and when attempts to locate the lost plane became futile we returned to Hickam Field.”
The next morning at dawn a massive search and rescue operation was launched from Hickam Field using 24 bombers. The aircraft wreck was soon spotted at nine in the morning. Later in the day the downed aircrew received an airdrop from Army planes of blankets, food and hot coffee. Wednesday night was much more comfortable for the crew who spend another night in the tropical forest.
A ground rescue operation was organized from Upolu Point, Suiter Field and started out Thursday morning at dawn. The rescuers followed the Kohala Ditch Trail from Kaukini Camp for 2 ½ hours on horseback, but then had to cut a new trail on foot for eight miles through marshland and heavy brush for another four hours before nearing the crash site. The rescuers fired revolvers into the air and then listened for a reply. They were about to give up, when they finally heard a reply by the crew who used a burst of machine gun fire and colored flares which guided the rescuers to the crash site. The rescue party reached the crash scene at noon. Airmen from Hickam later described the site as the “Worst possible place for a forced landing in the Islands.”
At the time only the bombsight and instruments were salvaged from the wreck. Due to its location, it was decided that any further salvage of the aircraft was impossible.
http://pacaeropress.websitetoolbox.com/ ... stcount=10