Hi All
I have in my hand a copy of a newspaper article dated March 10th 1952 from the Eastern Daily Press.
It shows a photograph of a Boeing B-50 that made an emergency landing on the by then disused airfield at Hethel in Norfolk.
I managed to find this after a bit of investigation several years ago now.
The reason I was interested in the incident was that my parents lived at Hethel at the time and they remembered it clearly.
It was a Sunday evening and the noise of the aircraft circling the village and finally landing I think brought most people out to see what was going on.
The story locally that the pilot had been on B-24’s there during the war and that’d how he found the place.
The newspaper makes no reference to the name or history of the pilot or the unit he was flying with in 1952.
There is a very indistinct picture and the aircraft looks like it might have a ‘S’ in a triangle on the tail. A bit like WW2 first air division tail markings.
The aircraft was apparently short of fuel and that’s why the landing was made there. It was flown out a few days later.
Has anyone got anything further on this incident?
All the best
Andy
By: RobAnt - 28th February 2004 at 20:14
The story locally that the pilot had been on B-24’s there during the war
Looked to see if I could find some link between B24’s & Hethel, as this might have helped ID the Pilot through his association with one of the units based there.
By: MikeH - 28th February 2004 at 17:00
The 398th left Hethel in May 1945 and all military flying ceased there in 1947.
By: Flat 12x2 - 28th February 2004 at 16:49
Andy
From Accident-Report.com it was a B-50D, 49-0286 (not 49-286), later converted to a WB-50D. I cant seem to find any more info than that.
Rob
The 389th BG did not have a triangle as any Sqd. Tail marking in WWII, would they have added/changed to it after WWII ?
By: MikeH - 28th February 2004 at 13:38
There’s a short mention of the incident in “Airfield Focus” No.53
Hethel.
“The B-50 landed without without landing aids or runway lights in darkness and pouring rain, It finished up to the tops of its undercarriage in mud with little damage and the crew unhurt. For a few days afterwards a C-47 Dakota flew in daily with a working party, preparing the the B-50 for when it later made a successful take off.”
A copy of probably the same photograph appears, with the aircraft nose high in the aforementioned mud. The letter in the triangle on the tail is indistinct.
By: ZH875 - 28th February 2004 at 12:47
Why Hethel?
Flying in an aircraft at any height over East Anglia you would be able to see a great number of WWII airfields in 1952.
For example Hethel, Coltishall, Attlebridge, oulton, Rackheath, Horsham St Faith, Swannington, Old Buckenham, Shipdam, Deopham green, Old Buckenham, Seething just to name the ones in the immediate vicinity.
Believing he landed at Hethel because he knew it was there seems a bit strange. He could have picked any of the above, most o the runways had not been removed by 1952.
By: RobAnt - 27th February 2004 at 23:20
According to some sources, the 389th Bomb Group/564th Squadron flew B-24’s from Hethel sometime during the war.
I found this thread http://www.com-web.com/wwwboard/messages/4247.html
and
http://www.com-web.com/wwwboard/messages/2539.html
and this might be a bit more interesting:
http://www.wf.net/~darilek/dar1.htm
The 389th people might be the place to start, I can’t find anything about the incident itself.
There are lots of Superfortress marks, identifying which one it is might help identify the unit.
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February 27, 2004 at 10:44 pm