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Date: | Wednesday 23 March 1921 |
Time: | night |
Type: | Connecticut Aircraft Company Observation Balloon |
Owner/operator: | United States Navy |
Registration: | A-5597 |
MSN: | |
Fatalities: | Fatalities: 5 / Occupants: 5 |
Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
Location: | Gulf of Mexico, 20 miles off St. Andrews Bay, Florida -
United States of America
|
Phase: | En route |
Nature: | Military |
Departure airport: | NAS Pensacola, Florida |
Destination airport: | |
Confidence Rating: | Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
Narrative:In an all-night training flight, a U.S. Navy free balloon, Connecticut Aircraft Company Observation Balloon A-5597, launched from NAS Pensacola, Florida, with five crew, and drifted over the Gulf of Mexico. Two messages received by pigeon indicate it first is 20 miles from St. Andrews Bay, then that all ballast had been dropped and that it was at 100 feet and descending. On 8 April 1921, a fishing vessel finds the balloon floating on the sea, with the gondola three and a half fathoms under water. Nothing was ever found of the five crew:
Chief Quartermaster E. W. Wilkinson,
enlisted men
R. V. Wyland,
E. L. Kershaw, and
J. P. Elder, and
Marine Corps member W. H. Tressey.
A-5597 was struck of charge on May 16, 1921
Sources:
1. Vaeth, J. Gordon, "They Sailed the Skies: U.S. Navy Balloons and the Airship Program", Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 2005, ISBN 1-59114-914-2, page 13.
2.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_military_aircraft_before_1925#1921 3.
https://www.nytimes.com/1921/04/10/archives/missing-naval-balloon-is-found-in-gulf-but-there-is-no-trace-of-the.html?sq=pensacola+balloon+pigeon&scp=1&st=cse 4.
http://www.joebaugher.com/navy_serials/firstseries1.html 5.
https://newspaperarchive.com/anaconda-standard-apr-10-1921-p-1/ 6. Vernon Record (Newspaper) - April 15, 1921, Vernon, Texas at
https://newspaperarchive.com/vernon-record-apr-15-1921-p-1/ Revision history:
Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
16-Nov-2018 00:13 |
Dr.John Smith |
Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Registration, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Source, Narrative] |
16-Nov-2018 02:46 |
Dr.John Smith |
Updated [Date] |