Barter Island, AK Plane Crashes On DEW Line Flight, Jan 1963
FIVE KILLED IN ALASKAN PLANE CRASH.
Fairbanks, Alaska (AP) -- Five men were killed, and one was seriously injured in the crash of a Wien Alaska Airline plane Monday night near Barter Island, on the northern rim of the continent.
Company headquarters here, reporting the crash Tuesday, said the dead included three Air Force officers, a civilian and the pilot. The survivor also was a civilian.
DEW Line Flight.
The twin-engine plane, under contract to Federal Electric Corp., was on a flight in connection with DEW line operations. Federal Electric maintains the Distant Early Warning radar line in the Far North.
In Anchorage, the Air Force identified the dead civilian as WILSON M. SIBLEY, Portsmouth, Va., and the survivor as EDWIN R. RICH, Granite City, Ill. He was brought to a hospital here. Both are employes of Federal Electric.
Pilot Killed.
The airline said the pilot was A. H. (TOMMY) THOMPSON, 48, whose wife and two children live in Yakima, Wash.
The Air Force identified the officers as:
Maj. PAUL F. HART, husband of Genevieve Edna Hart, Yuba City, Calif.
Maj. CHARLES F. PACKER, husband of Marjorie Gene Packer, Lancaster, Ohio.
Capt. LESTER L. MAHON, husband of Anna Julia Mahon, Dunkirk, N. Y.
A. E. HAGBERG, Wien vice president, said the plane had crashed at 11:26 p.m. three miles east of the Barter Island Airport near the end of a 300-mile flight from Cape Perry in the Northwest Territories of Canada.
From Barter Island.
HAGBERG said the men had flown to Cape Perry for a conference on DEW line operations. The Air Force officers were stationed at Barter Island, where a big radar installation is located.
Wreckage of the plane was sighted from the air at 5:50 a.m. A ground party reached the scene a short time later, finding five bodies and the one survivor.
HAGBERG said the cause of the crash had not been determined. The plane went down on fairly flat terrain. Visibility was one mile, and the ceiling was 600 feet.
San Antonio Express Texas 1963-01-16
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!
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