plane wreckage on Mt. Washington ?

[PhilU]

Anyone seen any? I read a brief note elsewhere that suggested there was some wreckage on the west side of Mt. Washington. Haven't been able to find any other official or unofficial reports to that effect.

 

This relates to past investigation I've been involved with re: a downed F-102 from 1962. Evidence for it's final resting place is all over.... from Mt. Tom creek to the entire span of the southern Olympics: Wonder Mt/Skokomish area, etc. Needle in haystack.

[JeffreyR]

I have been on and around the mountain several times and seen many pictures of different aspects and have never actually seen any evidence, possibly due to snow cover. The Olympic Mountain Rescue climbing guide mentions wreckage on I believe the NW aspect (I will need to double check that). There are reports of aircraft pieces all over the Olympics. I read on NWHikers about Jet wreckage somewhere in the upper reaches Hayes River or Godkin creek (can't remember which)

[John_Scurlock]

a cursory net search turned this up, not too specific but interesting nonetheless:

- 10 Nov 1962 USAF F102A 56-1387 1 PAX Paine AFB, WA to Local

 

The F102A left on a training flight over the Olympics when it vanished. Radar tracked the aircraft to a point NW of Shelton in Grays County. There was no indication of any problems during communications with the pilot. A three week search failed to find any trace of the missing jet. A faint beeper was heard in the search area during the first three days of the search but the source could not be pinpointed. On 14 May 1965, loggers found a parachute and harness in a tall pine tree north of Shelton. It appeared that whoever was in the harness cut himself free and lowered himself to the ground. However, it could not be proven that the harness belonged to the missing pilot, a captain with 11 years service. On 4 November 1968, the Civil Air Patrol reported finding wreckage of an unknown F-102A further north in the Olympic mountains and submitted photos and wreckage for evaluation. Examination of the wreckage revealed an old SAR data plate placed at discovered crash sites by the State that verified the wreckage was of another F-102A that had been previously recovered.

 

Recently, the family and relatives of the missing pilot announced they are continuing to search for the wreckage of this jet. The area were the jet was presumed to have crashed has long since been logged out and populated. Other than the parachute harness, no trace of the jet was found in that area. The current theory now is that the jet crashed somewhere deep in the southern Olympic Mountains. Other than family members, there is no "official" active search going for this missing jet.

 

That came from this website (there are others I believe):

LINK

[PhilU]

Thanks John, yep that's the one. Capt. Lucas. not to be confused with the F-102s that provided wreckage over by the Burke range. The search for Lucas was in the Skokomish valley (due to faint SAR beacon beeping) but the flight path was north of there over the Hoh, where it vanished from radar.

 

if anyone knows of the location of plane wreckage on west/north side of Washington, let me know. I havent been able to find a confirmed source for that.

[PChaus]

Found aluminum scraps here 16 years ago in the area in red. Definitely from crash of some sort.

 

[PhilU]

Nice pic Pchaus. Friend of mine just informed me that a Navy PV-1 Ventura crashed on NE side of the mountain on May 14th, 1943 with the loss of the entire crew of five. I think that corresponds to the red area on your map. Case closed, it seems.

[ForrestCL]

Here's a couple pics of the plane debris on the NE face of Mt. Washington at 5000' elevation or so. More can be found in the avalanche meadow below.

[CPOly]

I was hoping you'd chime in with a couple of photos Forrest. I may be wrong (wouldn't be the first time) but I thought a majority of the debris we'd seen was in the avalanche meadow shaded blue in the photo below. I do remember the stuff up higher as well. Great pic by the way PChaus.

 

Edited November 4, 2011 by CPOly

[PChaus]

The area that we were in (Red) looked completely different than those photos. Not that memory is fresh.....

[CPOly]

I believe the photos were taken somewhere in the area of the yellow X.

 

[soaponaroap]

I have followed the debris trail all the way up to the precise point of impact. I found many interesting artifacts along the way.

 

I have always been curious about the history of the accident. I never did ask the Forest Service or the Park about it though. Has anybody found reliable facts?

 

[PhilU]

The wreckage at the yellow x and blue field is that of a Navy PV-1 Ventura that crashed on May 14th, 1943 with the loss of the entire crew of five.

 

Not sure what to make of the stuff in the red field posted by PChaus.

[soaponaroap]

I asked for reliable sources, not more gossip. The following may or may not be reliable, but it is referenced.

 

On May 14, 1943 a Lockheed PV-1 Ventura, Bureau Number (BuNo) 33142, which operated out of NAS Seattle, crashed into Mount Rose, in the Olympic National Forest in Washington State, roughly 40 miles west of Seattle. All five crew were killed. http://www.dvrbs.com/monuments/berlin/BerlinWW2-FrankHBlanck.htm

 

 

[PhilU]

I asked for reliable sources, not more gossip.....

 

Hmmm.....nice. So to follow your example, next time I'll post an internet link that may or may not be reliable, or however you put it.

 

 

Edited January 11, 2012 by PhilU

[sledgek]

I know this is an old string, but was looking up some information regarding my grandfather's plane crash and ran across this thread. I can confirm the PV-1 crash from May 1943 as my grandfather was one of the 5 crew members killed.

 

[soaponaroap]

This web site

 

http://www.dvrbs.com/monuments/berlin/BerlinWW2-FrankHBlanck.htm

 

has the crash on Mt. Rose. It names five crew members. The wreckage is on Mt. Washington.

 

The wreckage remains after all these years. See the maps in the post of CPOly (not the red area).