ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 199680
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| Date: | Friday 2 February 1945 |
| Time: | |
| Type: |  Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat |
| Owner/operator: | VF-OTU US Navy |
| Registration: | 08939 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | nineteen miles off Daytona Beach, Florida -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.) |
| Nature: | Training |
| Departure airport: | |
Navy Lieutenant Joseph R. Hunt, 26, 1943 national men’s singles tennis champion was killed on 2 Febraury 1945 when his Hellcat F6F-3 fighter plane Buno 08939 of VF-OTU crashed nineteen miles at sea during a routine gunnery practice flight off Daytona Beach. Officials said his plane went into a spin from 10,000 feet while making a "run" on a target being towed by another plane. Hunt never pulled out of the spin and his plane crashed and sank immediately.
A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Hunt had transferred to the Naval Air Service after serving a year on destroyer duty in the Pacific Theater and the Atlantic. He is survived by his wife of three years, Mrs. Jacquelyn Caroline Hunt who lives in Port Orange, Fla. He is also survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Reuben Hunt of Los Angeles.
A former Hellcat pilot who had flown with Lt. Hunt while in training at Pensacola told the author of the book about the accident. The reason it had stuck in his mind was due to the rumored cause of the accident. He heard that Lt. Hunt’s life raft, on which the pilot sat, had inflated in flight.
Sources:
"Aircraft Accidents in Florida from Pearl Harbor to the Atomic Bomb", by Robert Widner. ISBN 978-0-557-03523-6
http://www.maplandia.com/united-states/florida/volusia-county/daytona-beach/
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 14-Sep-2017 09:57 | Laurent Rizzotti | Added |
| 19-Aug-2019 18:00 | stehlik49 | Updated [Operator] |
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