1951 midair - Hellcat vs. Cessna 140

[Chris Brame]

I was going through the USC Archive's photographs from the old L.A. Examiner looking for warbird stuff last night. I found a series of photos of the results of a midair collision between an F6F-5 Hellcat and a Cessna 140 over Stanton, CA on November 12, 1951. One shot shows the Hellcat's sheared-off tail with its BuNo, 79209, and a small letter S (maybe the last letter of Los Alamitos?). Most of the others show the Cessna, N76224, with markings "Bellflower 'Belles' Bellflower Calif." and the number 17 on the fin. I haven't found any info on the net about this crash; Baugher doesn't have anything for 79209 and the markings on the Cessna make me think it could be a Powder Puff Derby veteran, although this happened after the 1951 race. There's no info on fatalities, just a mention of "first-aid given to victims". Anyone have more info? Here's the link to the photos:
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compo ... 174/rec/30

[bdk]

Wow! Doesn't look survivable unless the Hellcat pilot bailed out.

Stanton is pretty well covered by homes, concrete and asphalt, so I would expect the site would be hard to find. Would be interesting to take a look on Google if someone could pin down the location more definitively.

[jtramo]

I searched "aircraft" in that archive and found a pic of a P-51 crashed into a hanger


http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compo ... 628/rec/34

apparently it was:

http://www.mustangsmustangs.com/p-51/?s ... l/44-72718