Sugar Loaf Mountain, AR Transport Plane Crashes, Oct 1973

BODIES RECOVERED FROM CRASH.

Fort Smith, Ark. (UPI) -- Crews, working amid airplane wreckage in the rugged mountains of western Arkansas for the second time in a month Tuesday recovered the bodies of seven airmen who died in the crash of their C130 cargo plane on foggy Sugar Loaf Mountain.
The huge four-engine propeller-driven transport crashed Monday during a routine training mission out of Little Rock Air Force Base. The aircraft accompanying it returned safely to the base.
"The wreckage is strewn over about a three acre area," said Arkansas State Trooper FRED ROSE, one of the first to arrive at the crash site. "The tail section is the only part of the plane you can recognize."
Witnesses said the aircraft exploded on impact.
On Sept. 27, a Texas International Airlines plane with 11 persons aboard crashed on Black Fork Mountain about 60 miles southwest of Sugar Loaf. It also had been caught in a thunderstorm.
The Air Force identified the seven crewmen killed Monday as Capt. RICHARD W. LANE, 26, San Jose, Calif., instructor-pilot; Capt. DAVID G. NOLTENSMEYER, 27, Kansas City, Mo., first pilot; Lt. DOUGLAS P. MENSSEN, Greenville, Ky., co-pilot; Capt. JOHN M. DAVIS, 35, Marked Tree, Ark., instructor-navigator; Lt. ROBERT L. NELSON, 24, Bradford, Pa., navigator; S. Sgt. WILLIAM R. DAWSON, 29, Cleveland, engineer, and T. Sgt. BERNARD J. THALER, 31, Slayton, Minn., load-adjuster.

Delta Democrat-Times Greenville Mississippi 1973-10-17
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!