Hickam AFB

The four engine airplane departed Hickam AFB, Hawaii, on a transpacific flight to Topham, Canton Island, Kiribati. It failed to arrive at destination and was lost without trace.
Crew:
1st Lt Clarence C. Corpening,
2nd Lt Richard J. St Denis,
2nd Lt Everette D. Stoner,
2nd Lt Ralph S. Powell,
M/Sgt Richard E. Boucher,
S/Sgt Raymond Jackson Jr.,
S/Sgt Howard A. Morckel,
S/Sgt Anthony J. Schneider,
T/Sgt Felipe D. Chavez,
T/Sgt Francis L. Powell.

The airplane departed Hamilton AFB on a flight to Hickam Field, Honolulu. It failed to arrive at destination and is believed to have crashed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Lost without trace.
Crew:
1st Lt Frederick L. Gossel,
2nd Lt Theodore Samek,
2nd Lt Jack V. Brown,
F/O Lloyd W. Paulson,
S/Sgt Darwin E. Bowman,
S/Sgt Rutledge P. Fuller,
S/Sgt John S. Hottle,
S/Sgt Clement R. Temple,
T/Sgt Byron B. Cromartie,
T/Sgt A. Louis Graner.

The airplane departed Hickam Field AFB, Hawaii, on a special mission to Australia, with a intermediate stop in Topham, Canton Island. On board were eight crew members, among them Edward V. 'Eddie' Rickenbacker, WWI flyer ace, who was sent on a tour of the Pacific theater to review conditions, operations, and to personally deliver a secret message from President Roosevelt to General MacArthur. After takeoff from Hawaii, the airplane went off course due to a navigation error caused by an out-of-adjustment celestial navigation instrument, a bubble octant that gave a systematic bias to all of its readings. That octant reportedly had suffered a severe shock in a pre-takeoff mishap during the first attempt to takeoff in a different bomber, but the landing gear's brakes seized mid-takeoff. The navigator kept the same damaged bubble octant which caused the navigational failure. The plane's aircraft commander was forced to ditch close to Japanese-held islands but the Americans were never spotted by Japanese patrol planes. The USAAF and USN searched for more than two weeks, but failed to find anything. Rickenbacker's wife convinced them to extend the search another week. The press reported that Rickenbacker had died. The seven crew used two life rafts. Rickenbacker still suffered from the airplane crash, his friend sustained serious injuries in the water landing, and others in the crew were hurt to varying degrees. The crew's food supply ran out after three days. They drifted at sea without food or water aside from an occasional fish and rain. On the eighth day a seagull landed on Rickenbacker's head, he caught it and the men meticulously divided it equally and used some for fishing bait. On the thirteenth day, one of the crew died and was buried at sea, leaving only six survivors. Rickenbacker assumed a role of leadership, encouragement, and browbeating to help the others survive, and encouraged them to turn to the Lord for solace. According to Rickenbacker, each person on the rafts converted to Christianity after the experience. Three of the survivors decided to separate and departed together. They found a small island, close to another, inhabited one. The natives of the second one were hosting an allied radio station. They were taken to an English missionary on the island, until rescued by a US Navy tender. On the seventeenth day, the other survivors saw an aircraft, but it failed to spot them. More planes were spotted on the eighteenth and nineteenth days, but they failed to spot them. US Navy pilots located the surviving crew members off the coast of Island X near Samoa. A Navy patrol plane spotted the captain on the evening of the twenty-first day, 12NOV42 and a PT Boat rescued him. Twenty-two days after the crash, 13NOV42 an OS2U Kingfisher crew spotted the raft with Rickenbacker and two other crew members off the coast of Nukufetau in Tuvalu and landed. Already dark, the Kingfisher loaded one inside the cockpit. Rickenbacker and the other crew member were strapped to the wing. The Kingfisher taxied on the surface for more than thirty minutes to a nearby PT Boat, where they were transferred. Rickenbacker completed his assignment and delivered MacArthur's secret message.
Source: Joe Baugher.
Crew:
Cpt William Cherry Jr., pilot,
2nd Lt James C. Whittaker, copilot,
Lt John J. DeAngelis, navigator,
Sgt Alexander T. Kaczmarczyk, navigator, †
Sgt James W. Reynolds, radio operator,
Pvt John F. Bartek, flight engineer.
Passengers:
Col Hans C. Adamson,
Cpt Edward V. 'Eddie'Rickenbacker.

Crashed for unknown reasons while taking off from Hickam Field, Honolulu. There were no casualties.

Shortly after takeoff from San Francisco, the crew encountered an unexpected situation an ditched the airplane into the Bay of San Francisco. A crew member was killed, 2nd Lt William R. Gunther, and all other occupants were rescued. The airplane was en route to Hickam Field, Honolulu.

The airplane was missing on a flight from the Palmyra Atoll to Hickam AFB, Hawaii. Lost without trace. The number of missing airmen remains unknown.

The airplane departed Hickam Field AFB on a maritime patrol flight over the Pacific Ocean, carrying a crew of nine. In flight, the crew encountered technical problems and equipment failures affected communication and navigation. In such conditions, the captain decided to return to base. Doing so, he reported that he was low on fuel and did not know his position with a 300 feet cloud ceiling in storm. A fuel exhaustion caused the engine n°2 to stop. When the engine n°3 was about to stop, the pilot feathered its propeller but this caused a loss of instruments so was restarted. The pilot held the plane off the water until the airspeed decayed and ditched the airplane about 233 km off Oahu. After ditching, one life raft was released and the top escape hatch failed to open. Two crew members were missing and seven others were rescued.
Crew:
1st Lt William S. Raper, pilot,
2nd Lt Edwin L. Sterling, pilot,
2nd Lt Frank E. Ross Jr., navigator,
Sgt Alva E. Dye, flight engineer,
Cpl Jessie R. Downard, assistant engineer,
Sgt Walter Dombrowski, radio operator, †
Pvt Robert J. McKeage, assistant radio,
2nd Lt Foster G. Daniels, bombardier,
Pvt Walter J. Dutkiewicz, air gunner. †

Crashed in unknow circumstances at Hickam Field, Pearl Harbour. Crew fate unknown.

Shortly after takeoff from Hickam AFB, while climbing, the airplane stalled and crashed into the sea. There were no casualties.
Crew:
Julian Jacobi.

The airplane departed Hickam AFB on a maritime patrol flight with a crew of 10 on board, looking for the Japanese invasion fleet which was expected after the December 7th attack. Just after their inbound turn the navigator discovered that there were some inconsistencies with their ‘known’ position and his estimated position. This pattern was repeating itself each time he took a sextant sighting. After reporting this to the pilot, he began a step by step check of all contributing factors and found the problem was the aircraft compass. It had not been recalibrated after the 0.50 caliber machine gun had been installed nearby. Therefore the compass was not reliable. The crew asked for a radio and heading check with Pearl Harbor. The heading they received was mixed up with another aircraft thus heading the B-17E out to sea - not to land. With no land in sight, it was getting dark and they were low on fuel. The pilot began a controlled ditching in the open sea about midnight, forty miles south of Kauai Island. With the nose up, the aircraft hit the water; the tail section up to just aft of the wings broke off and drifted away. Water came rushing into the compartments and everyone got out as best they could. In the water, they found only two 2-man rafts had deployed and were upside down. The other expected rafts did not launch when the aircraft hit the water. While clinging to the rafts, they began a crew count. One crew member was missing. It was dark and hard to see anything. Climbing onto the upside down rafts, they began calling for him. They heard a faint voice in the distance and began to move in that direction. They found the crew man riding, cowboy style, on the tail section, in front of the vertical stabilizer bruised but unhurt. Now they were all together, cold, wet, a long way from base, and a long night ahead. After three days and nights afloat, they were located by a PBY-5 Catalina which landed in heavy seas to rescue them, damaging the hull in the swell. Returning to Pearl Harbor, because of the damage to the PBY hull during the water landing, the PBY had to make a high speed run and fly up the sea plane ramp. The pilots nosed the PBY up the ramp and it skidded across the tarmac, came to a halt and slowly rocked onto one wing float. There were a lot of people waiting for them - Army, Navy, Medics. The nine crew were back at Pearl and on the way to the hospital. The crew killed was U/N Earl J. Cooper.
Source: www.joebaugher.com