This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Death Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/JW.2ADE/8053 Message Board Post: Four Marines died in this plane crash last Friday, April 25 at approximately 11:00 a.m. when two F3D Sky Knights collided one mile west of Mojave. A Marine Corp spokesman said one of the pilots radioed he thought his nose wheel was stuck and the pilot of' the other ship flew underneath to check it. Suddenly the two aircraft locked together and crashed in flames. Victims were: 1st Lt. Loran G. Witty, 23; 1st. Lt. Kenneth. D. Erickson, 24; M/Sgt. Robert A. Gerhard, 35; and T/Sgt. John J. Ellis, 29. All were attached to Marine Air Weather Fighter Squadron 542 of El Toro. Posted by East Kern Genealogical Society Courtesy of Mojave Desert News California City, Kern, CA Published: 03 May 1956