Date:	Saturday 15 January 1944
Time:	16:13
Type:	North American AT-6D Texan
Owner/operator:	5th Ferry Gp USAAF
Registration:	41-34358
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	10 miles south of Gonzales, Texas -   United States of America
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Ferry/positioning
Departure airport:	Love Field, Dallas, Texas
Destination airport:	Foster Field, Victoria, Texas

Narrative:
On 15 January 1944, the AT-6D 41-34358 flown by 2nd Lt John Martin Reiber of 5th Ferrying Group USAAF took off from Love Field, Dallas, Texas, on a ferry flight to Foster Field, Victoria, Texas. Some time later, a civilian bus driver observed the airplane flying at extremely low altitude over Texas Highway 29. The airplane, flying at high speed, made two or three low passes over the bus, clearing the bus by 15 feet each time. The airplane circled around and then flew parallel to the road at low altitude, the pilot raising the port wing to clear telephone poles as he went. The port wing collided with a slightly taller telephone pole and was sheared off. The airplane rolled to the left and into an inverted attitude before smashing into the road about 100 yards from the bus, which it had overtaken from the rear. The airplane skidded upside down for about 300 yards, ejecting the pilot’s body and knocking down a fence and a small tree before coming to rest. Reiber was killed on the spot. The airplane did not burn but was destroyed utterly. This occurred at 1613 hrs CWT ten miles south of Gonzales, Texas.

Reiber was born on 12 March 1921 at San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. At the time of his death his wife resided at Dallas and his parents, Martin Robert and Mary Aloisa Reiber, at Denver, Colorado. He is buried in Fairmount Cemetery, Denver, in Block 38, Lot 116, Section 6.

"Fatal Army Air Forces Aviation Accidents in the United States, 1941-1945. Volume 2, July 1943-July 1944", by Anthony J. Mireles. ISBN 0-7864-2789-2
http://www.aviationarchaeology.com/src/AARmonthly/Jan1944S.htm
Lubbock Avalanche newspapers, 16 January 1944 (available online at https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/6154398/)
https://www.findagrave.com/page=gr&GRid=15012187
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzales,_Texas
http://www.maplandia.com/united-states/texas/gonzales-county/gonzales/

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
15-Jan-2016 12:54	Laurent Rizzotti	Updated [Time, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Location, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
17-Sep-2019 20:24	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Operator]