HOME

Picture archives:       Current Projects:  Past Site Surveys       Who we are:   links:      contact us:

1st Lt James H. McClendon and his crew of of seven set out on a routine sea patrol from their home base at Wheeler on the morning of 16 December 1942.  After less than two hours, the number two engine began missing and running rough.  Lt. McClendon decided to abort the mission and return to base.  An hour and a half later, after ordering fuel transfer from the bomb bay tanks to the main tanks, an apparent overflow of fuel in the bomb bay led to an explosion, which engulfed the aircraft in flames.  Three of the crew members managed to bail out of the stricken craft and the other five perished in the ensuing crash.  The wreckage is strewn over a fairly large area, indicating a breakup in flight prior to impact.    HAPS will plan a memorial to be placed  at Wheeler Field rather than near the crash site because of the remoteness of the site.

Click here for the aircraft accident report and the testimony of the surviving crewmembers

The pictures below were taken by a HAPS survey crew recently

This oxygen bottle had washed a few hundred yards downstream	With the end overgrown in moss, this was the largest piece we saw	One of the carburetors	Part of a crumpled wing and fuselage section	A hydraulic actuator for one of the doors	Part of an engine in the stream bed
Another engine against a tree	Errol and a fuselage section	Partially buried fuselage piece	Crumpled fuselage	Fuselage and wing section	Other view of wing and fuselage
Forward Fuselage area	Detached cylinder head	Another detached jug	Main gear assembly	Main tire buried in mud	A portion of the star emblem
Broken propellor and spinner assembly	Scott with one of the wing tips	Other side of wing tip	Unknown part	Tip of right vertical stabilizer	Other side of vertical stabilizer