it was C-47D 43-48298 and I have crash location as CHARLESTON 8 MILES NE, WV
April 8, 1951: National Guard plane crash at Charleston
The 21 West Virginia airmen aboard a military C-47 transport plane had little warning before their plane crashed and burned on April 8, 1951. The plane crashed just 20 minutes after its pilot radioed air traffic controllers that he would attempt to land at Charleston’s Kanawha Airport.
The plane slammed into a hillside near Little Sandy Creek, north of Charleston. It skidded about 400 feet through mud and heavy underbrush and one wing was torn off before the plane erupted in flames.
Seven officers and twelve enlisted men died on impact and two officers were thrown clear of the wreckage but died later of severe burns. The airmen were from Kentucky’s Godman Air Force Base, where they were training for overseas duty during the Korean War. All but one of the dead were West Virginians, most from the Charleston area.
The plane was one of two on its way to Kanawha County for the funeral of a colleague, Major Jock Sutherland of St. Albans, who had died three days before in a plane collision in Florida. Both planes carried 21 airmen and were expected to land just after noon. The other plane returned to Kentucky after learning of the crash.
News of the tragedy reached people in Charleston just after Sunday church services. Governor Okey Patteson and Mayor Carl Andrews requested flags be flown at half staff for a week.
The death toll equaled West Virginia’s worst aviation accident involving a military plane. In 1942, another transport plane had crashed into a mountain near Welch in McDowell County, also killing 21.
P-51 pilot 1LT Charles R. Michaelson perished also in this crash
and check this:
http://www.wvgazette.com/static/century/GZ0408.html
http://www.dailymail.com/static/specialsections/lookingback/lb0212.htm
Martin
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