Label
Propeller Blade, ca. 1947
USA
Gift of Norma Katz and Barbara Estey, 2017.21
On June 14, 1947, a B-29A Superfortress bomber took off from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona for a navigational training mission to the east coast. Bad weather forced the crew to divert from their originally planned destination of Andrews Field in Washington, DC to Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford, Massachusetts.
The weather grew worse, and in the darkness, the crew overshot Hanscom and ended up in Vermont. Shortly before midnight, the crew attempted to contact Boston but reached Manchester, New Hampshire instead, and told the operator who responded that they did not need assistance. At 12:14 am, residents fo the village of Perkinsville in Weathersfield heard a loud aircraft flying low overhead, and then heard an explosion as the aircraft impacted with the south face of Hawks Mountain.
Residents responded immediately, but there were no survivors, and most the of the plane was destroyed in the crash. It remains the deadliest crash in Vermont aviation history, with twelve fatalities. The Army salvaged all weapons, and local residents took some of the debris. This propeller was carried down the mountain and kept in a local barn for nearly sixty years before the owner donated it to the Vermont Historical Society.