Lockheed Transport Crash near Ibagué, Colombia

Date: 4 Sep 1943 [unknown]
Location: Ibagué, Tolima, Colombia

The new squadron commander, Maj. Robert Payne... He had gained photographic experience in other mapping squadrons but did not know the men in the widely spread units of his new outfit. In Group headquarters in Washington, D.C., he got acquainted with all the staff sections. Since James Kenneth Munford had come out of the 2nd Squadron, he spent time with him.

He took time for a date with one of the secretaries, Margaret Cheseldine.

Munford loaned him their car for a springtime drive. It came back with a sprig of cherry blossoms on the rear-view mirrors. In his last letter to Munford he thanked him for taking an "interest in my interests both of them" (squadron and girl). In Laredo, Payne found personnel problems.

He called Munford several times to talk about them. In Manaus he found Jack Browne Guss a competent lab commander, morale builder, and trusted adviser for the crews of planes that came and went. No personnel problems. Payne planned to visit his field laboratory at Cali. Colombia, next.

He could save time by making a non-stop flight of more than 1,300 miles over uncharted jungle and mountains. Mark Fuller, who was a sergeant there at the time, told Munford a few months ago that another pilot advised against it. By taking a longer, better mapped route, he could stop on the way at Iquitos and an airfield in Equador. Payne did not heed this advice. He took off with a crew of five and Lt. Shakow, the communications officer. The plane kept in touch, by radio for a while and then vanished. Natives found the remains crashed on a rain-drenched hillside. The American consul at Cali and Lieut. D. D. Morris, the officer in charge of the photo lab, sent men to retrieve the bodies. When Miss Cheseldine heard the news, she sat teary-eyed at her typewriter until someone told her she should go home. That brought to six the number., of fatal accidents suffered in a year and a half. Their details are too sad to go into. ^[1]

Date: Saturday 4 September 1943
Type: Lockheed Ventura
Owner/operator: United States Army Air Corps (USAAC)
Fatalities: Fatalities: 8 / Occupants: 8
Aircraft damage: Written off (damaged beyond repair)
Location: near Ibagué - Colombia
Phase: En route
Nature: Military
Departure airport: Manaus, Brasil
Destination airport: El Guabito, Cali
Narrative: Crashed. Found a few days later. Four crew and four passengers.
Sources: El Tiempo 7 September 1943, p1+15/8 September 1943, p15/31 December 1943, p18 ^[2]

On the last flight:

1. Major Robert H Payne
2. 1st Lieut Milton Irwin Shakow
3. Lieut Leonard L Lowry Jr
4. SGT Robert Kalman Littauer
5. SGT Paul W Gault
6. SSGT Durwood H Bohnenpoll
7. MSGT Clyde Edward Crowder
8. SSGT Leo Edward Locke

Research Notes

1st mapping had A-29's is the Ventura the correct type?^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ https://www.newspapers.com/article/corvallis-gazette-times-munford-sgt-ja/70662525/
2. ↑ https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/190007
3. ↑ https://www.uswarplanes.net/lockheedtwins.pdf