Greetings p51,
This might be a little late for a reply but I just joined, I hope it helps you. I am working on a history of the MDANG and this area is pretty well covered, this is from my first draft,
The 1950s started with a sour turn of affairs when a series of engine failures caused several forced landings. Luckily, these forced landings brought no fatalities and little damage to the aircraft. A summation of these crashes is as follows:
On February 25, First Lieutenant Paul Shelton crash landed his F-47 into a plowed field then a haystack near Parsonsburg., Maryland. Lieutenant Shelton escaped unharmed. He and five other 104th pilots were flying to Ocean City for simulated gunnery practice. Lieutenant Shelton said his plane “conked out” at 4,000 feet, about 3 miles from Salisbury Airport. He did not know the reason for the power failure. Lieutenant Malcolm Henry, Shelton’s wing mate, circled the spot until Shelton was picked up.
In March the unit continued its realistic training when it participated in a mock air raid on an oil refining plant in Sugar Grove, Ohio.
On April 3, Captain Stanley Souders, was on a training flight, when he made a forced landing in a Worchester County field 8 miles from Berlin, Maryland. The engine of his F-47 had cut out at 7,000 feet. The undercarriage of the plane was damaged extensively, but Captain Souders was uninjured.
On April 23, two F-47s plunged into the water within an hour and a half of each other during routine missions. Both pilots were rescued and neither pilot was seriously injured. One of the planes dove into the middle of the Chesapeake Bay at noon as passengers of a crowded ferry boat, the Herbert O’Conner, a short distance away watched. Within five minutes of the crash the ferry stopped on it’s trip to Annapolis and Matapeake to rescue the pilot, Captain Kenneth Kessler of Dundalk,. Captain Kessler was uninjured. The cause of the crash was described as a power failure of unknown origin.
Ninety minutes earlier, First Lieutenant Peter Delo, had developed engine trouble seconds after take off, his aircraft plummeted into the Patapsco River 500 yards off the Harbor Field bulkhead. Lieutenant Delo was in the water less than three minutes before he was rescued by a crash boat. He was treated at Fort Holibird for hand and knee cuts. The cause of the engine failure was found to be a crack in the #2 cylinder and a blown head. Both planes were participating in practice gunnery flights. Twelve other planes were able to take part in the air to air target practice over Chincoteague Naval Air Station off shore range without incident.
A Board of Inquiry was set up to investigate the crashes and to determine whether attempts should be made to salvage Lieutenant Delo’s plane which lay in 25 to 35 feet of water. The squadron was grounded following the two accidents for over a month until new engines arrived to replace the old, long in service engines which were in most of the aircraft.
The following pictures are of Lt. Delo's aircraft being brought up (Lt. Delo is the officer standing on the right), the description on the back of the photo and the same aircraft as received and with early unit markings (pre Oriole).
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