Aerial pictures telling a very sad incident

[lazar]

Looking over the pictures section of the Army Air Force forum I first didn´t realise the relevance of the sequence posted below. But when I got the meaning these pictures really got me. They moved me more than other photos such as of crashed planes. I don´t know why but these pictures made me really really sad.


This is the Marion U. Reid crew.

Mathias

 

[dadgad]

Do you believe that the plane crashed soon after?

 

[fishmeok]

In one of my books with that sequence of photos the caption noted that the plane went down and no chutes were seen. It would be very difficult if not impossible to recover from that dive with no or limited elevator control.
Mark

 

[atkins]

My dear God..

 

[lazar]

I am shure, that even if they would have had the chance to bail out, the chance in Berlin at that time and under these circumstances sadly would probably have been zero.
I can´t get out of my head what these boys felt beeing hit from one of their very own bombs!
As I said these pictures toched me very deep and I am sure that is what you feel too.

Mathias

 

[Chris217]

I found the story behind this picture in D.A. Landes 1990 book "From Somewhere in England."

MISS DONNA MAE of the 94th Bomb Group.

On May 19, 1944, twenty-one aircraft from the 94th Bomb Group flew a mission agianst railroad yards at Berlin. The 94th was leading the 4th Combat Wing.
Over Germany they encountered heavy contrails, making navigation and formation flying difficult. On their bomb-run the group made several "S" turns for proper spacing and alignment. At bombs away one of the lead elements 1000 pound bombs hit and severed the tail of the number two aircraft in the second element-MISS DONNA MAE. The crew manned by Lt. M.U. Reid and crew of the 331st Squadron, went into a steep dive after the tail seperated. The aircraft never recovered, and when at 13,000 feet a wing came off, it spun crazily to the ground. Abe Dolim, flying navigator on Lt. McMakin's crew, watched in horror as the aircraft went down. Abe yelled, cursed and prayed for opening chutes, put his plea was in vain.

 

[Clark J]

Those poor guys must have dropped like a F*#@n rock!!!Just look at the clouds under the stricken Fort,the clouds don't move much and even if they were at a much lower alt. the forward speed of the Fort which the pics where taken from don't you think the clouds should have moved more out of the frame than they did??And it even looks as if the plane is keeping pace with the bomb drop.

 

[fishmeok]

It looks to me like the damage to the left horizontal stabilizer and elevator forced the right elevator down. You can see the slots at the hinges that would be hidden when the elevator is in neutral or up. Very sad.
Mark

 

[Andrew]

And just imagine the view from the tail gunners position.

 

[Anonymous]

I guess this pilot in the film was lucky

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LveSc8Lp0ZE

All the best Jeff

 

[better duck]

I guess this pilot in the film was lucky

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LveSc8Lp0ZE

All the best Jeff

Lucky, n doubt ver capable, but most of all aided by a smart fly-by-wire system! Modern jets are so unstable, that they can't even be flown without the fbw system. This video is the ultimate illustration of what a system like that is capable of!

 

[jeroen]

Apparently incidents like this where more common than you'd think. The b-24's tended to be heavier than the b-17's and flew a little lower as a result. When bombing with formations of plane's of both makings it was therefore crucial to be over target in sequence, something you can imagine was at least very tricky when flying through flak and with the luftwaffe looking for you. If both b17's and b-24's would show up over target at the same time it did happen that the liberator crews saw the bombs of their colleagues fall through (and on) their formation...

 

[better duck]

Here is a short clip of a B24 being hit by bombs from a plane flying higher. The caption on the YouTube fragment is "hit by flak" but if you look carefully you'll see that it is a bomb from a train of bombs falling.
Pretty awful stuff, when you realise that at the moment you witness, there is a crew thinking "what the ..." and afterwards a long fall down, pinned down in the plane because of centrifugal forces.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRCgntaD ... re=related