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Date: | Thursday 2 August 1945 |
Time: | 15:00 LT |
Type: | Lockheed YP-80A Shooting Star |
Owner/operator: | 1st FGp USAAF |
Registration: | 44-83029 |
MSN: | 080-1008 |
Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
Location: | 2 miles SE of Brandenburg, Kentucky -
United States of America
|
Phase: | En route |
Nature: | Military |
Departure airport: | Wright Field AAF, OH |
Destination airport: | Muroc AAF, CA |
Narrative:Lockheed YP-80A Shooting Star, 44-83029, c/n 080-1008, of the 1st Fighter Group, as of April 1945, crashed 2 miles south east of Brandenburg, Kentucky, killing pilot Major Ira Boyd Jones, 25, of Lancaster, South Carolina. "The plane left Wright Field, Ohio, shortly after 1400 hours, on a routine test flight to an unspecified army air field in Texas", said Brig. Gen. Joseph T. Morris, commanding general of Wright Field.
"Eight-year-old Chester and Martha Smedley, 14, of near Brandenburg, said they saw a 'big explosion' in the sky. Their father, Sheriff Alex Smedley of Meade county [sic], added that the explosion blew the wings loose from the fuselage, landing 200 or 300 feet apart. Maj. Jones' body, the sheriff said, was found about a quarter of a mile from the wreckage."
Maj. Jones, a fighter pilot with 11 months service in the China-Burma-India theatre, was attached to the fighter test branch at Wright Field. He was the son of Mrs. Mary C. Jones, of Lancaster, South Carolina, and was a graduate of the University of South Carolina.
This airframe was one the test P-80s shipped to Foggia, Italy, in December 1944, for tests by Wright Field personnel under combat conditions
Sources:
1. Greenville, South Carolina, "Explosion Of Jet Ship Kills Lancaster Man", The Greenville Piedmont, Friday 3 August 1945, Volume 114, Number 166, page 6
2. Associated Press, "Lancaster Boy Killed in Crash Of Jet-Plane", The State, Columbia, South Carolina, Friday 3 August 1945, Number 19,782, page 1
3.
http://www.aviationarchaeology.com/src/db.asp 4.
http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/71485-project-extraversion-lockheed-yp-80a/ 5.
http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1944_5.html 6.
http://forum.armyairforces.com/1st-FG-and-the-Lockheed-YP80A-Shooting-Star-m94873.aspx 7.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_military_aircraft_(1945%E2%80%9349)
Revision history:
Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
04-Sep-2011 07:29 |
Uli Elch |
Updated [Cn, Operator, Location] |
16-Nov-2014 02:46 |
Dr. John Smith |
Updated [Time, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Phase, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
13-Nov-2019 10:04 |
Anon. |
Updated [Operator, Operator] |
19-Apr-2020 08:32 |
Reno Raines |
Updated [Operator, Location, Operator] |