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AERIEL TRAGEDY FIVE SAILORS KILLED AS PLANE CRASHES INTO SIDE OF MOUNTAIN
AERIEL TRAGEDY FIVE SAILORS KILLED AS PLANE CRASHES INTO SIDE OF MOUNTAIN
Salinas, Dec. 6. - Five sailors were dead today in the crash of a private plane into a fog-blanketed mountainside 18 miles east of here. The plane, a single-engined Stinson Reliant monoplane, rammed and apparently exploded against the Mountain last night at an altitude of about (100 feet. It was believed owned and piloted by Jack E. Langley, 31, of Alameda, Cal. Four joy-riding sailors were passengers, A Navy party lowered the bodies down the steep mountain with ropes but they were so badly burned and mangled that none could be identified. The Navy would not release the names of the seamen believed to be aboard the plane on its weekend flight from Oakland to Burbank. All were reported from the Naval base at Yerba Buena Island, in San Francisco bay. One of the dead was believed to be 18-year-old Dale McArthur, of Burbank. His stepfather, A. H. Wilson, said the youth and four other sailors took off from Burbank about 4 p. m. yesterday on the return flight to Oakland. The plane crashed at 7:10 p. m. The crash was witnessed by a motorist, J. W. Bolender, of Salinas, who heard the plane flying in the fog several miles from Highway 101. He heard the motor sputter and cut out. Heavy fog obscured the plane from his view, but he saw a brief flash and heard a terrific explosion. Rescuers said bodies and wreckage were strewn over the side of the mountain. For hours they were unable to account for all the bodies, but a flight log tentatively identified the victims. Two blue sleeves from sailors uniforms were recovered. one with three white stripes sewed on it and the other with a red hash mark. The crash occurred in a rugged section of the mountains known as The Rocks at the junction of old San Juan road and Monterey highway in San Benito county.
--Madera Tribune, Madera, California, December 6, 1948
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