Elmendorf AFB - Elmendorf AFB

On November 15, 1957 at 06:22 PM, Elmendorf AFB - Elmendorf AFB experienced a crash involving Boeing B-29 Superfortress, operated by United States Air Force - USAF, with the event recorded near Talkeetna Alaska.

The flight was categorized as calibration and the reported phase was flight at a mountains crash site.

10 people were known to be on board, 6 fatalities were recorded, 4 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 60.0%.

Crew on board: 10, crew fatalities: 6, passengers on board: 0, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. The aircraft, a trainer conversion of a B-29 four engine bomber, and its crew were with the 5040th Radar Evaluation Squadron based at Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage. On this day, they were on a routine radar-calibration training mission that was to last about 10 hours. Flying south down the Susitna Valley in bad weather, however, they strayed 27 miles off course into the Talkeetna Mountains. At 1822LT, the aircraft crashed into an unnamed glacier at an altitude of 5,600 feet and some 39 miles southeast of Talkeetna, just northeast of the Hatcher Pass. Six crew were killed while four others were injured. Crew: Major Robert A. Butler, † Captain Richard O. Seaman, † Captain Erwin Stolfich, † Captain Edward A. Valiant, † 1st Lieutenant William J. Schreffler, † Airman Basic James R. Roberson, † Staff Sergeant Calvin K. Campbell, Staff Sergeant Robert J. McMurray, Technical Sergeant Manuel Garza, 1st Lieutenant Claire W. Johnson. Thanks to Adam Elliott for his wonderful website and history: http://adamspictureblog.blogspot.ch/2013/02/bomber-glacier.html

Aircraft reference details include registration 44-70039, MSN 10871, year of manufacture 1944.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 62.2676°, -150.0295°.