24 Perish In Plane

Transcribed from the Reading Eagle, Reading, Pennsylvania, November 5, 1944, page 1:

California Sheriff Reports Army, Navy Men Are Victims

Hanford, Cal., Nov. 4 (AP) — Twenty-four persons died when an airplane crashed here tonight, Sheriff Orvie H. Clyde, of Kings County, reported. Clyde said that the plane appeared to be a commercial airliner, and that the persons killed were army and navy personnel.

The bodies were scattered over an area of a mile. There was no indication that any of the passengers had attempted to bail out.

The plane was burning when discovered by Harold Anderson, a farmer, the sheriff said.

Anderson said parts of an airplane fell about him. Then he saw the plane burning about a half mile away.

Transcontinental & Western Air officials at San Francisco reported that one of their regular passenger planes, last heard from near Hanford, was overdue at Burbank, Cal., air field.

They said the plane was a regular Flight No. 8. The captain was A. T. Bethel; first officer, G. E. Smith, and hostess, Miss Ruth Miller, all of Burbank, TWA officials said.

The plane was en route from San Francisco to Burbank.

The bodies were scattered from 100 to 200 feet apart, most of the clothes ripped from them, Sheriff Clyde said.

Ambulances were rushed to the scene from Hanford, and from the Lemoore Airbase, 20 miles west.

Sheriff Clyde said that there was no indication of the cause of the accident. It was raining at the time, he reported.