Aircraft History
Built by Consolidated at San Diego. Constructors Number 19. This B-24 had an ASV radar antenna installed.

On January 9, 1942 assigned to the 21st Bombardment Squadron and began anti-submarine patrols off the United States west coast. Next, on June 11, 1942 placed under the control of the 28th Composite Group, and deployed to Otter Point Airfield (Umank).

Mission History
Took off on a weather mission over Attu and Kiska. Reaching Attu, the B-24 circled Holtz Bay and returned to Adak Airfield at 16:00, but found the airfield obscured by bad weather. The bomber radioed it would fly to the far end of Atka Island and make a force land. Force landed at the western end of Bechevin Bay, 200 yards from the beach.

Rescue
The crew survived with minor injurie, one with a broken collar bone. The crew made a shelter by draping wing covers over the port outer wing panel and wrapped themselves in their parachutes to sleep and spent the night at the wreck. Located the next day, supplies were dropped to them by B-24's and they made their way to the beach waiting to be picked up. A PBY came in and took them aboard. Too heavy to take off, they waited until a destroyer escort came in to gather them up.

Wreckage
During the landing, the tail section was torn off. Over the years, the fuselage crumpled behind cockpit from weight of the turret. Visited in 1975 by a US Navy helicopter crew, that removed the machine guns. The rest of the wreck remains 'in situ'.

Ted Spencer visited the wreck during 1978 & 1979:
"The nose was buckled by the crash. They came down very hot due to the low visibility and the ascending terrain in front of them. They hit the frozen ground which was actually made up of little hummucks. As they slid along, the ground tore up the skin and formers of the lower fuselage. The nose was doing the plowing and the nose gear assembly was torn away. The coupe de' grace was when the plane hit ground that had been furled by an old creek. The nose hit the far bank of the creek bed bank which probably buckled the nose/flight deck section. The impact slammed them to a halt."

In 1979, Ted Spencer of the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum nominated this B-24 to the National Register of Historic Places, accepted December 2008.

In 1984, the "American Veterans Memorial Museum" in Colorado registered this B-24 with the FAA as N58426 (today, this number is listed as not assigned) in hopes of recovering it, but no further action happened.

Today, the wreck is under the jurisdiction of the Aleutian Islands National Wildlife Refuge, part of the US Fish & Wildlife Preserve.

References
Thanks to Ted Spencer for additional information
A documentary was shown once on a local TV station in Alaska in 1983 but never released
Flypast, February 2001 "Forgotten Survivor" by Nicholas A. Veronico

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Last Updated
October 17, 2009