USAAF
Wartime History
This aircraft
crashed March 1942 during a routine costal patrol of the Hawaiian coast.
Three of her eight man crew died in the crash. Official Army Air Force
reports concluded that the aircraft was on final approch when fuel ran
out and the pilot ditched the aircraft in a suger cane field.
Wreckage
Located on the Wailua Suger Cane
Plantation fields near Waimea Falls. The aircraft was stripped in the
late 1980's for aluminum scrap, but many pieces remain on the crash
site. Due to the lack of fuel onboard the aircraft, very little fire
damage to the aircraft is present. The aircraft was painted in an overall
olive drab paint scheme with "early" wartime U.S. national
insignia. The aircraft
remains today in a very sorry state.
Recovery
Several small pieces were recovered for the QuestMasters Museum
including the port wing star (seen in photo), an E-6B flight computer,
several gun chutes, a mess kit, a match container, multiple .50 cal armour
piecing rounds, a portion of a Browning .50 cal machine gun and a propeller
hub from one of the engines.
B-24
