USAAF P38 Lightning 42-67207 crash site
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P-38 Lightning 42-67207
This sad little collection of metal is all that remains of a USAAF P38 Lightning flown by Flight Officer Hugh Jones from North Carolina.
During the morning of the 10th May 1944 F/O Hugh Jones took off from Goxhill near Grimsby to take part in a cine gun / single engine flying exercise. However, once airborne he could not locate his flight due to cloud and as such requested permission to join a pair of aircraft whose exercise was a cross country navigation training flight.
They headed due west for roughly 20 minutes until reaching a cloud bank which they attempted to fly beneath, but could see the cloud ahead extended down to ground level. At this point 2nd Lt Gene H. Cole ordered the two other pilots to turn back. On turning back the flight leader found that F/O Jones was missing from the No.2 position.
It appeared that while in cloud F/O Jones had become disorientated and rolled his aircraft over. When he attempted to climb he was actually descending until the aircraft struck the ground.
amazing has not been hauled away. great shot !
It happens quite often. JFK Jr. died in a similar fashion.
Didn’t know that.
JFK’s brother Joe died when his Liberator blew up over Suffolk during experiments in sending remote controlled bombers over Germany. The incident was witnessed by President Roosevelt’s son, Colonel Elliot Rooselvelt, who was filming the Liberator from his de Havilland Mosquito.
Well, the theory is that JFK Jr. (in his small single engined plane) was disoriented & crahed into the Atlantic for the same reason as this unfortunate P-38 pilot. He was not dealing with fog but was flying at night but was NOT certified to fly off instrumentation alone.
As far as Joe Kennedy I thought he was killed aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress… and I hade NO idea about Elliot Roosevelt having been a Mosquito pilot. Funny, lasrt night I had a strange dream about the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe over London & such.
Roosevelt flew 300 combat missions. His decorations included the Distinguished Flying Cross. As a chase pilot for the Operation Aphrodite flights in 1944, he witnessed the death of Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. over Blythburgh, England. He also commanded Photo Recon units of the USAF flying Spitfires, then Lockheed P38’s Also Mosquitoes, hence the connection with thosewhilst filming the flight when JFK Jn was killed.
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardtierney]
Indeed! See here also, though I had it as being over Suffolk where Kennedy’s Liberator blew up?
Speaking of remote controlled bombers & such… ever heard of the Mistel Bomb?
I think it was quite ingenious for the era. Another case of an awesome weapon
used incorrectly by a megalomaniac, just like the Me262. (I’m speaking of Hitler)
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/cadillac_v16]
Interesting stuff, cheers.