Thing Mountain, CA Plane Crashes Into Peak, Mar 1946

27 PERISH AS AIRLINER HITS HIGH PEAK.

San Diego, March 4 -- (AP) -- Sheriff's deputies and rescue workers today brought bulldozers and pickaxes into action in an effort to remove 27 bodies from the wreckage of a westbound American Airlines flagship which crashed into a fog shrouded mountain and burned, killing 23 passengers, including two babies and a crew of four.
Attempts to recover the bodies were halted last night when a blinding blizzard swept across the rock studded mountain range. At dawn a line of workers and ambulances again started up the side of the mountain.
Directed By Sheriff.
Sheriff Captain BLAKE MUSON, who is directing operations by radio, said he had received no report the funeral caravan had started down the mountain. He said he did not think a roadway could be build until late this afternoon.
Bound from Dallas to San Diego, on the final leg of a flight from New York, the big Douglass DC3 yesterday smashed into the side of a rugged 6,000 foot peak in the Mt. Laguna Range, 60 miles east of here scattering wreckage over a quarter mile area. Both wings were sheared from the craft.
The crash was the worst in the history of commercial aviation in the United States. On August 31, 1940, a Pennsylvania Airlines plane crashed near Lovettsville, Va., killing 25 persons, including Senator Ernest Lundgen (R-L Minn.)
Deputy sheriffs who reached the scene of the crash, approximately 100 feet below the peak's crest, accounted for the bodies of 23 adults and the two babies. Two remaining bodies were believed buried in the fire blackened wreckage.
Eight Thrown Clear.
Eight bodies were thrown clear, but 15 of the adults were burned beyond recognition.
Before the blizzard started, bodies of the two babies were removed to the San Diego sheriff's office.
American Airlines listed California passengers of the ill fated airliner as:
Chief Petty Officer V. C. BERDINO, USN, San Diego.
MRS. C. C. BRADBURY, 808 N. Market Street, Inglewood, Calif.
MISS GLADYS DELANCEY, discharged WAVE, 1138 Meridian Avenue, South Pasadena, Calif.
WILLIAM BATTERSBY, 1040 University, Berkeley, Calif.
Commander R. V. ROBLIN, USN, 3909 South Pacific Avenue, San Pedro, Calif.
Members Of Crew
Members of the crew were:
Captain SAMUEL E. STONER, Pilot, San Gabriel, Calif.
Captin, MAX LEONARD FIFE, Los Angeles.
First Officer EMMETT EDWARD BAKER, Long Beach, Calif.
Stewardess MAXINE RICHARD, Detroit.
The airliner last was reported over El Centro, Calif., at 7:58 A. M. The crash was believed to have come a few minutes later.

The Modesto Bee and News Herald California 1946-03-04

Continued on Page 2.