ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 179272
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| Date: | Wednesday 5 March 1941 |
| Time: | |
| Type: |  Grumman F4F-3 Wildcat |
| Owner/operator: | United States Navy (USN) |
| Registration: | 1844 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | near Norbeck, Maryland -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Test |
| Departure airport: | NAS Patuxent |
On 5 March 1941, Lieutenant Seymour Anderson Johnson, 37, of Arlington, Virginia, took off from Naval Air Station Patuxent for a test flight with the F4F-3 Buno 1844, the first production F4F-3 Wildcat. He went over 30,000 feet (up to 43,000 according to one source) and then had some kind of oxygen failure. The plane simply nose dived into the ground near Norbeck, Maryland, burying itself eight or ten feet in a stagnant creek bed and killing its pilot.
Johnson had more than 4,000 hours in various naval and Grumman aircraft. Born in 1904, he graduated from Goldsboro High School in 1920 and was enrolled at UNC from 1920 until 1923, when he transferred to the U.S. Naval Academy. After graduating from the academy, Johnson was commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Navy and entered flight training. He received his pilot's wings in 1929 and went on to serve as a pilot in various U.S. ships. In 1937, he volunteered for duty as a test pilot, which was normally a two-year assignment. He was assigned to Anacostia Naval Air Station in Washington, D.C., in 1938 and was a test pilot there until his death. He had been selected to be promoted to lieutenant commander in June 1941.
On 20 October 1942, the Army Air Forces Technical Training School at Goldsboro was renamed Seymour Johnson Field in his honor, even though he was a Navy pilot.
Sources:
https://wreckchasing.websitetoolbox.com/post/f4f3-crash-norbeck-md-030541-9955671
https://fr.findagrave.com/memorial/49239008/seymour-anderson-johnson
http://accident-report.com/USN/aircraft.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norbeck,_Maryland
http://www.maplandia.com/united-states/maryland/montgomery-county/norbeck/
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 04-Sep-2015 19:03 | TB | Added |
| 06-Mar-2021 07:57 | Laurent Rizzotti | Updated [Aircraft type, Registration, Location, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Source, Narrative] |
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