Delaware Bay off Cape May, NJ Plane Crashes Into Bay, May 1947

FOUR DIE AS PLANE PLUNGES INTO DELAWARE BAY.

CRAFT IS T.W.A. CONSTELLATION CARRYING EMPLOYES.

Cape May, N. J., May 12. (AP) -- Four persons were killed in a crash yesterday involving a T.W.A. Constellation plane which crashed and exploded on Delaware Bay while on a routine training flight.
Four persons died in the Constellation crash, all identified as T.W.A. employes.
The Constellation crash here on Delaware Bay left only a few splinters of the plane, some bits of flesh and several articles of clothing found by nearby fishermen who reached the scene shortly after the wrecked craft sank.
At the T.W.A. maintenance and supply base, New Castle, Del., the dead were identified as PATRICK S. McIVERNAN, Pomeroy, Wash.; ROBERT E. WEEKS, Hockossin, Del.; LUKE VOLLACK, JR., Cheyenne, Wyo.; and MARTIN HELLIR, Baltimore.
The New York office of T.W.A. said after an investigation of the crash: "There was no indication of malfunctioning of aircraft or engine prior to the time the plane went into the water."
"The restricted area in which floating debris from the plane was found and the position of the wreckage sighted from the surface indicated that the plane did not disintegrate before it went into the water."
The Civil Aeronautics Administration in Washington said the plane was on a routine local training flight and a T.W.A. spokesman added the crew was practicing emergency landing procedure. He identified WEEKS as the senior captain in charge and the check pilot of the flight.
T.W.A. said as far as could be learned the plane had made no report of trouble or other radio contact.
The keeper at Brandywine Shoal lighthouse told the Coast Guard he heard a plane flying low and then an explosion, followed by two more explosions. The wreckage was 200 yards south of the lighthouse, located about ten miles west of Cape May.

The Kingston Daily Freeman New York 1947-05-12
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!