Quay, NM Plane Crash, Aug 1933

PLANE CRACK-UP KILLS FIVE

SHIP LOST WAY IN STORM OVER NEW MEXICO

Pilot, Co-Pilot and Three Passengers of T.W.A. Transport Are Victims; One a Small Child.

AMARILLO, Aug. 29, (AP) – The crushed bodies of five persons, including a 3-year-old child, were found in the wreckage of the Transcontinental & Western Air's night mail and passenger tri-motor transport at Quay post office, 20 miles south of Tucumcari, N. M., at 10:30 o'clock this morning.
The Dead
The dead are MR. AND MRS. RALPH GORE of Albuquerque, N. M., and their grand-daughter, EVELYN GORE, daughter of MR. AND MRS. PAUL GORE of Armarillo; Pilot HOWARD MORGAN and co-pilot C. W. BARCUS both of Kansas City.
The plane was found by J. G. STRATTON, rancher in that vicinity who reported his discovery here. Details were slow in arriving here because of the condition of the roads. Heavy rains made transportation next to impossible.
The ill-fated ship apparently was caught in the same terrific storm which washed out a span of the railroad bridge, five miles west of Tucumcari, resulting to at least six deaths and 40 injured early today, when the Golden State Limited was wrecked.
Making Up Schedule
The T. W. A. plane left here at 11:35 p. m. Last night with mail and the three passengers. MR. AND MRS. GORE, 43 and 40 years old respectively, had been visiting their son here. The ship was made up here to continue the regular night mail and passenger flight westbound when the regular ship was storm-bound in Kansas City.
The plane was one of the regular tri-motored transports equipped with both receiving and sending radio. The last heard from pilot MORGAN was when he reported his position over the emergency field, six miles east of Tucumcari. Radio men here, reported they thought they heard him trying to talk one time later. MORGAN gave no intimation of a storm or trouble in his last report.
He apparently turned sharply to the left off his course immediately after passing the Tucumcari field, or else was forced to turn back somewhere west of there and went to the south off his course to avoid a storm.
Sought During Night
The report was confirmed from the Quay postmaster through Western Union. Airport officials here and along the mid-transcontinental route had been checking since midnight to try to find the missing ship. It was not known whether it burned after it struck but it was assumed it was completely demolished. It was not known if the mail was recovered.
RALPH GORE was a railway mail clerk running between Albuquerque and Vaugh on the Santa Fe line. He was transferred from Amarillo to Albuquerque two years ago. He spent extra time as mail clerk at the Albuquerque airport.
MR. AND MRS. RALPH GORE lived in Amarillo 10 years before going to Albuquerque. MRS. GORE flew to Amarillo last Friday and MR. GORE came here last Saturday on plane. The PAUL GORES live at 3304 Tyler Street. An infant is the only other child in the PAUL GORE family.
The child was returning with her grandparents for a visit.

The Abilene Daily Reporter Texas 1933-08-29

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