Warbird Information Exchange

While I was in a doctor's waiting room, I picked up a copy of Bethesda (Maryland) Magazine. It was a retrospective on the history of the region. In one article they have a timeline with significant events in the community history.

One entry on the timeline for June 30th, 1945 indicates that an F6F Hellcat crashed near the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and Old Georgetown Road, near what is now the Bethesda Metro Center. It was reported that no one was killed. That is all the information it gave.

Does anyone have any more info on what caused the plane to come down? Plane / pilot involved? Pictures? So far, I haven't been able to come up with anything on my own.

I found a hit for July 1, 1945, in the Washington Post archives.

The abstract only says that the crash was the result of two Navy planes colliding in mid-air.

You can purchase the whole 2 page document online to get more details. Maybe you can get it from microfiche at a library.

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/access/214478162.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&date=Jul+1%2C+1945&author=&pub=The+Washington+Post++(1877-1954)&edition=&startpage=M1&desc=Stunting%2C+Witness+Says%3B+2+Injured+in+Spill+at+Airport

Two Naval aviators flying F6Fs on familiarization flights, out of Norfolk, VA, decided to buzz a female friend, who was working at the Bethesda Naval Medical Center. According to an account of the incident contained in a Montgomery County Historical Society newsletter, the pilots were repeating a "show manuever" they'd also pulled several times at Atlantic City, NJ. The account states that they were flying south, down the "front lawn" area of Bethesda Naval, at an altitude that one of the pilots recalled as being "about 15 feet," or "first floor of the (Bethesda Naval) tower." Then, with the flight leader acting first, they'd both pull into a 70 degree climb. Unfortunately, when the flight leader began his climb, the wing man climbed AND turned left, sawing off the tail section of the flight leader's plane. The flight leader's plane tumbled, and the pilot was just barely able to get out in time, and at a sub-minimum altitude for chute deployment, approx. 700 ft. The chute deployed just in time to be caught in a tree and to allow the pilot a gentle, tip-toe landing. It is considered a miracle that the plane crashed into a vacant lot, amidst a densely populated area. The wingman managed to nurse his plane back to Bolling airfield. My father was a few blocks away at the time and witnessed the collision and bailout. People in a barbershop in the Bethesda triangle area heard the accident, saw the damaged plane coming right at them, and thought they were about to die.