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| Date: | Wednesday 12 November 1958 |
| Time: | c. 14:00 |
| Type: |  Boeing KC-97 Stratotanker |
| Owner/operator: | United States Air Force - USAF |
| Registration: | |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 11 / Occupants: 11 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed, written off |
| Location: | Savannah, GA -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | Unknown |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | Hunter AFB |
Crashed in residential area two minutes after take-off and exploded. The plane exploded when it hit the ground. I was 5 years old and witnessed it crashing. I lived across the road from it. This tanker plane was heading out from Hunter Army Air Field, Savannah, Ga. Heading to New Hampshire. It was fully loaded with 15,000 balloons of fuel. It had 2 tanks on each wing that held 700 gallons each . Plus the fuel they flew with. . My mother and neighbor were both Registered nurses and they took there sheets and covered the dead. I want to say the pilot was a hero. He could have dumped all the fuel to try and save there selves but he radioed in that he would not drop it as it would be a fire bomb and they were over a neighborhood. None of the 11young men survived the crash. I always wanted to find the pilots family to tell him what a hero he was. I hope one of them reads this. The Herb River was 1 block away but they could not reach it and the plane hit the ground in a vacant lot behind my grandmother's house. I lived across the road and watched it fall. My email is cheyennebeasley4444@ yahoo.com if anyone wants to contact me.
Sources:
Passauer Neue Presse 14 November 1958, p1
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 13 November 1958, p1+6
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 24-Nov-2014 19:40 | TB | Added |
| 06-Feb-2015 20:59 | Anon. | Updated [Location, ] |
| 07-Dec-2016 10:26 | CraigLassen | Updated [Date, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Source, Narrative, ] |
| 30-Jul-2017 17:15 | TB | Updated [Time, Source, Narrative, ] |
| 25-May-2025 07:40 | Anon. | Updated [Narrative, ] |
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