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Archiver > KYMCCREA > 2003-09 > 1064320790


From: "mcasada" <>
Subject: Fw: [KYMCCREA] Man Falls From Airplane - 1943
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 08:39:50 -0400


----- Original Message -----
From: "mcasada" <>
To: <>
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 9:18 AM
Subject: Fw: [KYMCCREA] Man Falls From Airplane - 1943


> Hi My mother saw the man fall out of the plane she lived on the Day Ridge
> Road at that time. She said it looked like a sack of mail falling.
> from the plane. She has talked about this allot over the years. My
> mother is Hazel Strunk Casada Maxine ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mary Lou Hudson" <>
> To: <>
> Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 12:16 AM
> Subject: [KYMCCREA] Man Falls From Airplane - 1943
>
>
> > The McCreary County Record, Feb. 11, 1943
> >
> > Plane Near Whitley City
> >
> > Bowman Field Officer Says California Man Opened Outer Door By Mistake
> >
> > PANEL FOUND NEARBY; DOOR ON DAY RIDGE
> >
> > Mrs. Eliza Clark Locates Body Monday; Says She Watched It Fall
> >
> > The body of a soldier identified as Herman A. Tinder of Hollywood,
Calif.,
> who fell from an Army transport plane Sunday afternoon at 4:20 o'clock,
was
> found at eight a.m. Monday a mile northeast of Whitley City.
> >
> > Coroner Sidney Taylor said the body was moved to the Stearns Undertaking
> Establishment late last night. It was not moved sooner on orders from the
> Army, he said. An officer from Bowman Field, Louisville, arrived this
> morning to conduct an investigation.
> >
> > The misunderstanding of an order given by the pilot of the plane was
> blamed by Major Ira J. Sellers, commander of the 27th Base Headquarters
and
> Air Base Squadron, Bowman Field, for the accident.
> >
> > The pilot ordered Tinder to open the door leading from the cockpit, but
> Tinder misunderstood and opened the outer door of the plane, Major
Sellers,
> who made a preliminary investigation, was quoted at Louisville by Major
> Gerald J. Fusco, Bowman Field public relations officer, as saying.
> >
> > The door, a double panel outlet, of aluminum, whipped open with Tinder
> holding on, Major Fusco said. The crew chief rushed to Tinder's aid, but
he
> was thrown from the door and whipped against the plane body by the wind.
> >
> > The door battered against the body for perhaps five minutes, then tore
> loose and fell, Major Fusco said. He explained the door is made of an
inner
> and outer panel, the door proper probably being the one found by Henry
> Gibson of the Day Ridge section of the county. The plane was bound from
> Bowman Field to Pope Field, near Fort Bragg, N.C., Major Fusco said.
> >
> > The body, clad in coveralls and with no parachute, was found lying in a
> pine thicket 100 yards from a narrow country road. Coroner Taylor said he
> identified the body from a metal identification tag around the soldier's
> neck. Also on the tag was the name, Mrs. Bessie Tinder, Hollywood, Calif.,
> presumably either the mother or the wife of the victim. Coroner Taylor
> estimated his age at around thirty years.
> >
> > An aluminum panel was found twenty feet from the point where the body
was
> located. The panel was constructed in such a manner that it could be
> detached. The panel, measuring approximately two by five feet, was painted
> the grayish black color used on the outside of Army planes. The inside was
a
> light green. On the inside was printed the warning, "Do not open at speeds
> in excess of 150 miles per hour," and the label "Cargo panel."
> >
> > Mrs. Eliza Clark, who has two sons in the Army and who lives about a
> quarter of a mile from the point where the body was found, said she was in
> her yard Sunday afternoon and was watching the plane as it passed over at
a
> high altitude in a northerly direction. She said she saw some object fall
> from it and heard it hit the ground with a metallic sound. She did not
> believe it to be a body at the time, but thought it merely a part of the
> plane. She made a search of the vicinity Sunday afternoon, but found
> nothing. Monday morning she resumed her search, first locating the metal
> panel and then the body. She expressed the opinion the soldier was
grasping
> the panel and did not release it until he struck the tree tops.
> >
> > Coroner Taylor said the body was not badly mangled and the force of the
> fall was evidently broken when the body struck the tree tops. Only a few
> twigs were sheared from the top of a nearby tree. Coroner Taylor said some
> dents in the ground about twelve feet from the body were evidently made by
> the feet when the body struck. The dents were about three inches deep and
> five feet apart.. A knife, cigarette lighter and 41 cents in change were
the
> only other objects found near the body.
> >
> > Mr. Gibson, who lives ten miles northwest of Whitley City near Natural
> Arch and who found the plane door, said that Sunday afternoon about 4:30
> o'clock he saw a plane go over in a northerly direction and saw two
objects
> falling from it. He said his daughter, Louisa Gibson, called his attention
> to the falling objects. One fell a half mile from his home and the other a
> greater distance away in another direction, he said. Monday morning he
> located the nearest one which was the door, measuring three and a half by
> five feet. The door closely resembled the panel found at Whitley City, but
> had two latches on it, neither of which was damaged. It had been held in
> place on the plane by two hinges, both of which had been ripped from the
> door. It was painted identical with the panel.
> >
> > A large number of persons visited the scene near Whitley City Monday.
> >
> >
> >
> >
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>


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