Kingman – Glendale

On February 23, 1930 at 12:00 AM, Kingman – Glendale experienced a crash involving Fokker F10, operated by Western Air Express, with the event recorded near Mt Shay California.

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

3 people were known to be on board, 3 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 3, crew fatalities: 3, passengers on board: 0, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. The crew departed Kingman on a ferry flight to Glendale after dropping off their passengers. En route to Grand Central Airport, weather conditions deteriorated and the visibility was poor due to heavy snow falls. The aircraft impacted the slope of Mt Shay located about 30 km northeast of San Bernardino. As the aircraft failed to arrive at destination, SAR operations were initiated and the wreckage was found six days later by Dudley Steele, flying a Richfield Oil Company aircraft with Mrs. Juanita E. Burns as observer. The wreckage was spotted about eight miles from Lake Arrowhead. The aircraft was destroyed and all three crew members were killed. Crew: James E. 'Jimmy' Dole, pilot, A. W. Bieber, copilot, John W. Slaton, steward.

Aircraft reference details include registration NC279E, MSN 1011, year of manufacture 1928.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 39.0846°, -121.5550°.