Date:	Friday 8 June 1951
Time:	day
Type:	Republic F-84E Thunderjet
Owner/operator:	560th FS, 12th FEW, USAF
Registration:	50-1130
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Richmond, Wayne County, Indiana -   United States of America
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	Wright Patterson AFB, Dayton, Montgomery County, Ohio (FFO/KFFO)
Destination airport:	Selfridge AFB, Harrison Township, Michigan (MRC/KMTC)
Confidence Rating:	Information verified through data from accident investigation authorities

Narrative:
Republic F-84E-30-RE Thunderjet 50-1130, 560th FS, 12th FEW, USAF: Written off (destroyed) June 8 1951 when this F-84E (and 7 others) crashed during a training flight near Richmond, Wayne County, Indiana. All 8 suffered icing on the jet engine intake screens while flying through a thunderstorm. Accident also reported as "engine fire/engine explosion in flight". Pilot Richie E Willsie, USAF bailed out successfully

According to a contemporary newspaper report ("The Sunday Herald (Sydney, NSW) Sunday 10 Jun 1951 Page 3 -see link #3):

"EIGHT JETS IN MASS CRASH
RICHMOND (Indiana), June 9 (A.A.P.).
Eight Thunderjet fighter planes in a flight of 34 crashed within a radius of 25 miles near here yesterday. All the planes are now under armed guard and will be examined for traces of possible sabotage. Three of the eight pilots were killed, two were injured, and the three others escaped injury.

Two escaped by parachute and the three other survivors went down with their planes, but climbed or were pulled from the wreckage. Some of the planes exploded and burnt on impact.

IN STORM
The crashes came during a thundershower, with lightning and winds up to 35 m.p.h., but one pilot who walked away unhurt from his crashed plane said that he did not attribute the crash to the weather.

One of the survivors, Captain Bryce Long, said that his plane had cleared the thunderstorm when it crashed. "My engine exploded," he added. A county sheriff who saw some of the aircraft in the air before they crashed said they were "all ganged up together."

He quoted a surviving pilot as saying that at least two of the planes collided. The planes were part of a flight flying from Wright Patterson air force base at Dayton (Ohio) to Selfridge (Michigan).

1. "Palladium-Item" Richmond, Indiana, Sunday 10 Jun 1951, Page 20
2. Illinois Daily 9 June 1951: https://idnc.library.illinois.edu/?a=d&d=DIL19510609.2.42&e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN----------
3. The Sunday Herald (Sydney, NSW) Sunday 10 Jun 1951 Page 3 EIGHT JETS IN MASS CRASH: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/18500786
4. http://forgottenjets.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/F-84.html
5. https://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1950.html
6. https://www.aviationarchaeology.com/rptAF55.asp?RecID=16459
7. http://www.accident-report.com/Yearly/1951/5106.html
8. https://eu.pal-item.com/story/news/local/2015/06/07/years-ago-jets-fell-wayne-co-sky/28641615/
9. https://www.facebook.com/IndianaHistoricalBureau/posts/on-june-8-1951-a-squadron-of-eight-us-air-force-f-84-thunderjets-crashed-or-cras/4539182956107615/
10. https://wreckchasing.websitetoolbox.com/post/mystery-of-the-jets-4613217
11. https://idnc.library.illinois.edu/?a=d&d=DIL19510609.2.42
12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond,_Indiana

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
24-Feb-2015 21:37	TB	Updated [Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Narrative]