----- Original Message ----- From: "mcasada" <mcasada@fuse.net> To: <KYPULASK-L-request@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 9:18 AM Subject: Fw: [KYMCCREA] Man Falls From Airplane - 1943 > Hi My mother saw the man fall out of the plane she lived on the Day Ridge > Road at that time. She said it looked like a sack of mail falling. > from the plane. She has talked about this allot over the years. My > mother is Hazel Strunk Casada Maxine ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Mary Lou Hudson" <hudgo@medt.com> > To: <KYMCCREA-L@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 12:16 AM > Subject: [KYMCCREA] Man Falls From Airplane - 1943 > > > > The McCreary County Record, Feb. 11, 1943 > > > > Plane Near Whitley City > > > > Bowman Field Officer Says California Man Opened Outer Door By Mistake > > > > PANEL FOUND NEARBY; DOOR ON DAY RIDGE > > > > Mrs. Eliza Clark Locates Body Monday; Says She Watched It Fall > > > > The body of a soldier identified as Herman A. Tinder of Hollywood, Calif., > who fell from an Army transport plane Sunday afternoon at 4:20 o'clock, was > found at eight a.m. Monday a mile northeast of Whitley City. > > > > Coroner Sidney Taylor said the body was moved to the Stearns Undertaking > Establishment late last night. It was not moved sooner on orders from the > Army, he said. An officer from Bowman Field, Louisville, arrived this > morning to conduct an investigation. > > > > The misunderstanding of an order given by the pilot of the plane was > blamed by Major Ira J. Sellers, commander of the 27th Base Headquarters and > Air Base Squadron, Bowman Field, for the accident. > > > > The pilot ordered Tinder to open the door leading from the cockpit, but > Tinder misunderstood and opened the outer door of the plane, Major Sellers, > who made a preliminary investigation, was quoted at Louisville by Major > Gerald J. Fusco, Bowman Field public relations officer, as saying. > > > > The door, a double panel outlet, of aluminum, whipped open with Tinder > holding on, Major Fusco said. The crew chief rushed to Tinder's aid, but he > was thrown from the door and whipped against the plane body by the wind. > > > > The door battered against the body for perhaps five minutes, then tore > loose and fell, Major Fusco said. He explained the door is made of an inner > and outer panel, the door proper probably being the one found by Henry > Gibson of the Day Ridge section of the county. The plane was bound from > Bowman Field to Pope Field, near Fort Bragg, N.C., Major Fusco said. > > > > The body, clad in coveralls and with no parachute, was found lying in a > pine thicket 100 yards from a narrow country road. Coroner Taylor said he > identified the body from a metal identification tag around the soldier's > neck. Also on the tag was the name, Mrs. Bessie Tinder, Hollywood, Calif., > presumably either the mother or the wife of the victim. Coroner Taylor > estimated his age at around thirty years. > > > > An aluminum panel was found twenty feet from the point where the body was > located. The panel was constructed in such a manner that it could be > detached. The panel, measuring approximately two by five feet, was painted > the grayish black color used on the outside of Army planes. The inside was a > light green. On the inside was printed the warning, "Do not open at speeds > in excess of 150 miles per hour," and the label "Cargo panel." > > > > Mrs. Eliza Clark, who has two sons in the Army and who lives about a > quarter of a mile from the point where the body was found, said she was in > her yard Sunday afternoon and was watching the plane as it passed over at a > high altitude in a northerly direction. She said she saw some object fall > from it and heard it hit the ground with a metallic sound. She did not > believe it to be a body at the time, but thought it merely a part of the > plane. She made a search of the vicinity Sunday afternoon, but found > nothing. Monday morning she resumed her search, first locating the metal > panel and then the body. She expressed the opinion the soldier was grasping > the panel and did not release it until he struck the tree tops. > > > > Coroner Taylor said the body was not badly mangled and the force of the > fall was evidently broken when the body struck the tree tops. Only a few > twigs were sheared from the top of a nearby tree. Coroner Taylor said some > dents in the ground about twelve feet from the body were evidently made by > the feet when the body struck. The dents were about three inches deep and > five feet apart.. A knife, cigarette lighter and 41 cents in change were the > only other objects found near the body. > > > > Mr. Gibson, who lives ten miles northwest of Whitley City near Natural > Arch and who found the plane door, said that Sunday afternoon about 4:30 > o'clock he saw a plane go over in a northerly direction and saw two objects > falling from it. He said his daughter, Louisa Gibson, called his attention > to the falling objects. One fell a half mile from his home and the other a > greater distance away in another direction, he said. Monday morning he > located the nearest one which was the door, measuring three and a half by > five feet. The door closely resembled the panel found at Whitley City, but > had two latches on it, neither of which was damaged. It had been held in > place on the plane by two hinges, both of which had been ripped from the > door. It was painted identical with the panel. > > > > A large number of persons visited the scene near Whitley City Monday. > > > > > > > > > > ==== KYMCCREA Mailing List ==== > > If you wish to unsubscribe from the KYMCCREA Mailing List, send only the > word > > UNSUBSCRIBE to KYMCCREA-L-REQUEST@ROOTSWEB.COM or if you are > > on the Digest List to KYMCCREA-D-REQUEST@ROOTSWEB.COM > > > > ============================== > > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, > go to: > > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 > > > > >