Fort Wainwright - Fort Wainwright

On February 21, 1947 at 09:58 AM, Fort Wainwright - Fort Wainwright experienced a crash involving Boeing B-29 Superfortress, operated by United States Army Air Forces - USAAF, with the event recorded near Thule AFB (Pituffik) Qaasuitsup Kommunia.

The flight was categorized as survey / patrol / reconnaissance and the reported phase was flight at a plain, valley crash site.

11 people were known to be on board, 0 fatalities were recorded, 11 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 0.0%.

Crew on board: 11, crew fatalities: 0, passengers on board: 0, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is technical failure. The crew left Fort Wainwright (Ladd Field) on a Top Secret flight over Soviet Union, a mission that should take from 12 to 20 hours. While returning to his base and flying over Greenland at an altitude of 24,000 feet, the crew encountered poor weather conditions and lost his orientation. The pilot was unable to locate his position and informed his base that he was forced to attempt an emergency landing as the fuel reserve was four minutes only. The aircraft crash landed on an icy area located about 280 NM north of Thule Airbase. The crew was rescued three days later and the aircraft christened 'Kee Bird' was abandoned. A team was created in the nineties to recover the wreckage but unfortunately, on May 21, 1995, the aircraft caught fire following a fuel leak and was destroyed. Crew (46th Reconnaissance Squadron): Vern Arnett, pilot, Russel S. Jordan, copilot, Talbert Gates, copilot, John G. Lesman, astro navigator, Burl Cowan, navigator, Robert Luedke, flight engineer, Howard Adams, radar observer, Lawrence Yarborough, gunner,0 Ernie Stewart, gunner, Paul McNamara, gunner, Robert Leader, radio operator.

Aircraft reference details include registration 45-21768, MSN 13662, year of manufacture 1945.