Date:	Monday 16 November 1942
Time:
Type:	Consolidated B-24D Liberator
Owner/operator:	504th BS, 346th BG, USAAF
Registration:	41-23935
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 8 / Occupants: 8
Other fatalities:	0
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Off Key West, FLorida -   United States of America
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:
Destination airport:

Narrative:
On 16 November 1942 nineteen B-17 and B-24 bombers took off from several airbases (DeRidder Army Air Field, Louisiana, Salina, Kansas, Houston and Dallas, Texas) on a navigation flight across the Gulf of Mexico to a rendezvous point near Key West, Florida. The flight was then to proceed to a practice-bombing mission at Waccasassa Bay, north of Tampa, Florida.

One of the aircraft of the flight, the B-24D 41-23935 of 504th BS, 346th BG (reported by various reports to have taken off from Love Field, Dallas, at 0915 hrs EWT, or from DeRidder Army Air Field, Louisiana), was last seen at 1400 hrs EWT, eighty miles south of Key West, steering a course 095 degrees.

At approximately 1430 CWT, when the flight was over Key West, this crew radioed in to the other that he was south of Key West. The flight circled the area of Key West for some time waiting for the airplane to catch up. When it did not appear, the flight proceeded with the remainder of its mission.

The B-24D 41-23935 was never heard from again and was believed to have crashed in the Guld of Mexico in the vicinity of the Florida Keys for an unknown reason. An extensive search of the area started a dawn the next day with 14 aircraft of the flight covering both the Atlantic and the Gulf and was continued until 26 November by aircraft based at Orlando but revealed no clues, wreckage or bodies.

The whole crew was posted missing, presumed lost at sea:
2nd Lt Arden Holmes Hanes (pilot)
2nd Lt Wilfred Arthur Johnson (co -pilot)
2nd Lt Stanley Joseph Trusiak (navigator)
2nd Lt Willoughby Zera Strait (bombardier)
SSgt Ernest Marven Kennedy (engineer)
SSgt Richard Clyde Grubbs (radio operator)
Sgt Merle Robert Gray (gunner)
SSgt George James Thompson (gunner)

Fatal Army Air Forces Aviation Accidents in the United States, 1941-1945, vol 1, by Anthony J. Mireles, ISBN 0-7864-2788-4, page 191
War Diary Commander Gulf Sea Frontier, 16 November 1942 (https://www.fold3.com/image/267874298/war-diary-111-3042-enc-a-page-140-us-world-war-ii-war-diaries-1941-1945)
MACR 16005 (https://www.fold3.com/image/29431044/us-missing-air-crew-reports-macrs-wwii-1942-1947-page-17050-us-missing-air-crew-reports-macrs-wwii-1)
https://www.aviationarchaeology.com/listPages/airforce/asp/AF_Monthly_1942Nov_S.asp
https://fr.findagrave.com/memorial/151889302/arden-holmes-hanes
https://fr.findagrave.com/memorial/214086522/wilfred-arthur-johnson
https://fr.findagrave.com/memorial/214085910/willoughby-zera-strait
https://fr.findagrave.com/memorial/214081835/stanley-joseph-trusiak
https://fr.findagrave.com/memorial/200618709/ernest-marven-kennedy
https://fr.findagrave.com/memorial/214088063/richard-clyde-grubbs
https://fr.findagrave.com/memorial/214080054/merle-robert-gray
https://fr.findagrave.com/memorial/214089920/george-james-thompson

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
16-Apr-2024 09:58	Nepa	Updated [Location, Operator, ]
18-Nov-2024 11:08	Laurent Rizzotti	Updated [Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Location, Phase, Nature, Source, Narrative, ]
18-Nov-2024 13:41	Laurent Rizzotti	Updated [Source, Narrative, ]