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1946 Antarctica PBM Mariner crash

1946 aviation accident

Field	Value
name	1946 Antarctica PBM Mariner crash
Crash image	Crashed U.S. Navy PBM-5 Mariner on Thurston Island, 11 January 1947.jpg
image_size	300px
Image caption	Wreckage and survivors of the crash photographed on 11 January 1947
Date	30 December 1946 - 12 January 1947
Type	Severe weather
occurrence_type	Accident
Site	Thurston Island, Antarctica
Fatalities	3
Aircraft Type	Martin PBM Mariner
Operator	United States Navy
Tail Number	59098
Crew	9
Survivors	6
Coordinates
mapframe-zoom	4

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The 1946 Antarctica PBM Mariner crash occurred on 30 December 1946, on Thurston Island, Antarctica when a United States Navy Martin PBM-5 Mariner crashed during a blizzard. Buno 59098 was one of 4 aircraft lost during Operation Highjump.

The crash

The aircraft based from , Bureau Number 59098, callsign "George 1", hit a ridge and burned while supporting Operation Highjump. The crash instantly killed Ensign Maxwell A. Lopez and Petty Officer Wendell K. Hendersin. Two hours later, Petty Officer Frederick Williams also died. Six crewmembers survived the crash, Aviation Radioman James H. Robbins, pilot Ralph "Frenchy" LeBlanc, co-pilot William Kearns, photographer Owen McCarty, Plane Captain J.D. Dickens, and Pine Island Captain H.H. Caldwell, a guest observer on the flight. They were rescued 13 days later by an aircraft from Pine Island. LeBlanc was so frostbitten from the conditions that both of his legs were amputated to avoid gangrene spreading past his knee joints. His legs were amputated on the Philippine Sea, a ship that was part of the rescue, and one of his arms was later surgically grafted to his face to repair frostbitten facial tissue in a Rhode Island naval hospital. Hendersin, Williams, and Lopez were buried at the crash site and their remains have not been recovered.

In 2004, during a surveying flight, a Chilean navy airplane flew over the site using ground penetrating radar to discover the exact location. A two-expedition recovery mission was planned, but subsequently cancelled, for both November 2008 and November 2009 to recover the three fatalities of the crash from their temporary grave. In 2012, another group announced plans to drill 100 ft down to recover the bodies. Rich Lopez, nephew of Maxwell Lopez, was part of the plan. However the group struggled to raise the $1.5-3.5 million dollars they would need.

References

{{cite web

References

(30 December 1956). "Decade Ago Sarasotan Was Off For Antarctica". Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
(1974). "United States aircraft losses in Antarctica". Antarctic Journal of the United States.
"Antarctic Mayday: The Crash of GEORGE ONE".
"Ralph LeBlanc Interview (1987) : Louisiana Digital Media Archive".
Tribune, STEVE CAHALAN La Crosse. (21 April 2008). "SISTERS WANT BODY RECOVERED FROM ANTARCTICA".
(26 June 2012). "Airmen Lost in Antarctic Ice May Be Recovered".
Hoffman, Carl. (July 1, 2007). "Buried at the Bottom of the World". [[Air & Space Smithsonian]].

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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