CAROLE LOMBARD, 21 MORE FOUND DEAD IN WRECKAGE OF AIRLINER.

TWA PLANE HIT MOUNTAIN, BURNED; SEARCHERS REPORT.

Las Vegas, Nev. Jan 17 (AP) -- Blonde, carefree Screen Actress CAROLE LOMBARD, her mother and 20 other occupants of a luxurious TWA skysleeper crashed to flaming death Friday night on 8500-foot Table Mountain, 35 miles southwest of here.
Horseback searchers fount the bodies and wreckage of the Los Angeles-bound plane Saturday afternoon. It plunged mysteriously against the 8500-foot mountain soon after take-off here at 7:07 p.m. under clear skies.
Killed with Actress LOMBARD were her mother, MRS. ELIZABETH K. PETERS, OTTO WINKLER, M-G-M studio publicity man, MRS. LOIS HAMILTON of Detroit, three plane crew members and 15 officers and men of the Air Corps Long Beach, Cal., ferrying command.
Started For Scene.
GABLE flew here early Saturday from Hollywood. The distraught actor paced a hotel room for hours awaiting word from searchers and finally set off soon after noon with Sheriff M. E. WARD for the almost inaccessible crash scene.
Word of finding of the bodies, however, met GABLE on his trip and he returned heartbroken to his hotel.
The bodies will have to be brought out by horseback and this may require a day or so. A party with extra horses, being rounded up Saturday night, expected to leave for the crash scene at daylight Sunday.
Aided Defense Sales.
It is an 11-mile trip up from Good Springs at the mountain's base, with few trails.
The 32-year-old MISS LOMBARD, formerly JANE PETERS of Fort Wayne, Ind., was returning to Hollywood from Indianapolis where on Thursday she sponsored sales of defense bonds totaling nearly $2,500,000. The trip was an assignment by GABLE, chairman of an actors' committee handling personal appearances to boost bond sales.
Hollywood friends heard the return trip by plane resulted from a coin toss-up between her and WINKLER, she wanting to come back by air and he by train. Their eastward journey was by train.
Flying to Husband.
MRS. HAMILTON was en route to join her husband, Lieut, LINTON D. HAMILTON, aviator stationed on the West Coast.
The Air Corps Ferry pilots were en route back to their Long Beach base after delivery flights of new planes to eastern points. They had boarded the airliner at Albuquerque.
Major H. W. ANDERSON, executive officer at the Air Corps gunnery school here, said inquiry into the crash would be left to regular authorities and there would be no separate Army investigation.
Undersheriff GLENN JONES reported from Jean, Nev., that the big 21- passenger craft apparently hit at full speed. Many of the victims were burned beyond recognition.
It took hardened trackers more than six hours on horseback to force their way through the rugged, trackless Polosi Mountains. Their search was slowed by terrain which made progress afoot impossible.
Army guards, led to the scene by Major HERBERT ANDERSON, commanding the Army's gunnery school here, took charge.
The search had been underway since soon after 7 o'clock (PST) Friday night, when miners in an isolated canyon reported hearing an explosive crash and a pilot of another airlines had spotted the blazing pyre.
Passenger List.
The complete passenger list as announced by United States Army authorites and TWA:
Capt. WAYNE WILLIAMS, 41, pilot, Los Angeles and Nyack, N. Y.
MORGAN A. GILLETTE, 25, co-pilot, Los Angeles.
ALICE GETZ, 21, hostess, Kewanee, Ill., and Los Angeles.
CAROLE LOMBARD, 32, Hollywood.
MRS. ELIZABETH K. PETERS, Hollywood, MISS LOMBARD'S mother.
OTTO WINKLER, Hollywood, M-G-M publicity representative.
MRS. LOIS HAMILTON, Lincoln Park, Mich.
Second Lieut. JAMES C. BARHAM, Waco, Texas.
Second Lieut. STEWART L. SWENSON, Long Beach, Cal.
First Lieut. ROBERT E. CROUCH, Mount Washington, Ky.
Second Lieut. CHARLES D. NELSON, St. Cloud, Minn.
Brothers Killed:
First Lieut. HAL BROWNE, JR., San Antonio, Tex.
Second Lieut. KENNETH P. DONAHUE, Stoughton, Mass.
Second Lieut. FREDERICK J. DITTMAN, Oakland, Cal.
Staff Sergeant EDGAR A. NYGREN and Sergeant ROBERT F. NYGREN, brothers, Dunbar, Pa.
Private NICHOLAS VARSAMINE, Bronx, N. Y.
Staff Sergeant DAVID C. TILGHMAN, Snow Hill, Md.
Sergeant FREDERICK P. COOK, Reidsville, N. C.
Private First Class MARTIN W. TELLKAMP, Lamoille, Ill.
Corporal MILTON B. AFFRIME, Philadelphia.
Sergeant ALBERT M. BELEJCHAK, Braddock, Pa.
Thirteen Army Men Known Here.
Thirteen of the Army officers and men on the TWA Skyliner which crashed Friday night in Nevada were members of the first graduating class of the Jack Frye School here, then known as the Eagle Nest Flight Center, it became known Saturday.
Six officers who were graduates of the school here were First Lieuts. ROBERT E. CROUCH and HAL BROWNE, JR., and Second Lieuts. JAMES C. BARHAM, STUART L. SWENSON, K. P. DONAHUE and CHARLES D. NELSON.
Enlisted men known to have graduated here were Staff Sgts. DAVID C. TILGHMAN and ALBERT M. BELEJCHAK, Sgts. EDGAR A. NYGREN and ROBERT NYGREN, Corp. MILTON B. AFRIME and Privates NICHOLAS VARSAMINE and MARTIN W. TILLKAMP.
WAYNE WILLIAMS, pilot, had flown through Albuquerque frequently during 11 years of service with TWA. Co-pilot MORGAN A. GILETTE and Hostess ALICE GETZ also stayed in Albuquerque between runs.

Albuquerque Journal New Mexico 1942-01-18
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!