Bryce Canyon, UT Plane Smashes Into Plateau, Oct 1947

PROBERS SEEK AIR DISASTER CAUSE.

DC-6 FLOWN TO TRAGEDY SCENE FOR COMPARISON.

BODIES OF 52 VICTIMS TAKEN FROM CRASH AREA.

Bryce Canyon, Utah. Oct. 25 -- (U.P.) --Investigators today had a new DC-6 flown to Bryce Canyon to compare the intact craft with its sister ship that crashed here yesterday killing 52 persons.
The new ship will be taken as close as possible to the spot on the Bryce Canyon plateau where United Air Lines' trip 608 ended in flaming tragedy.
As the investigators pick up pieces of the broken, burned craft, whey will be taken over by the other DC-6 and "matched -- if possible." a Douglas Aircraft company spokesman said.
Crash Area Checked.
"That's about the only way they can tell where the parts fit," he explained.
At the same time inspectors were checking over the crash area and the final path of the plane as its pilot tried desperately for 11 minutes to fight an aerial fire and reach the emergency field.
From the charts, the investigators hoped to be able better to know what caused the fire and how rapidly it spread in the sealed rear baggage compartment.
The bodies of 50 adults and two babies lay on the frost-covered ground until mid-morning today, when the grim task of removing them to a mortuary in Richfield, Utah, 72 miles north of Bryce Canyon, began.
The bodies were placed in crates and loaded on trucks for the trip to Richfield. Actually few of the bodies were whole. Most of the crates were filled with body parts that would be assembled in the mortuary.
By noon, 18 crates of bodies or parts had been picked up.
Await Identification.
Officials said they would not even attempt to establish the identity of the bodies until they were in the morturary. They said that dental charts would be the best aid in the identification -- the bodies were so badly burned and mangled.
After identification is established at Richfield, the bodies will be sent to the victims' homes.
Guards, braving sub-freezing weather, remained around the wreckage all night, making sure that the maroon-blanket covered corpses were not disturbed.
The investigators from many agencies and companies started their probe with a "policy" committee meeting. At the meeting, the procedure to be followed during the twin task of investigating the accident cause and identifying the dead was outlined.
Probe Begun.
The committee is headed by JAMES PAYTON of Santa Monica, Calif., western regional director for the civil aeronautics board.
Other leading members include WILL SIEVERT and EARL MITCHELL of the CAB, GEORGE HALDEMAN of the civil aeronautics authority, AL BUTTON of United Air Lines, and ED BURTON, chief engineer for Douglas Aircraft.
Identification will be directed by Col. A. D. TUTTLE of Chicago, medical director for United Air Lines.
One CAB official who would not permit use of his name said he was particularly puzzled over the wide spread of the wreckage. Some parts were found 500 feet in front of the plane. Others were at the floor of Bryce canyon. to the rear of the wreckage.
Later Explosions.
The official said it was possible -- but he did not have any facts yet to support his theory -- that the passengers and crew of the doomed airliner had started throwing out any movable objects in an attempt to lighten the huge ship to help its desperate flight for the emergency landing field.
The CAB officer was also puzzled by the fact that the debris was scattered in the shape of a cross, indicating, he said, that there had been two explosions after the plane landed.
The body of one stewardess, as yet unidentified, was found on the canyon lip.
Air line officials praised the pilot, Capt. E. L. McMILLAN of Balboa Beach, Cal., for his vain fight to keep the plane in the air just a half minute longer when he might have been able to land on the Bryce canyon emergency air strip.
Only one other disaster in the history of American aviation exceeded it for the number of lives lost. That was the crash of an airliner near Port Deposit, Md., on May 30 this year when 53 persons were killed.
Several prominent persons were among the dead in yesterday's crash, including JACK GUENTHER, managing editor of Look magazine and former United Press sports writer; CLEMENT D. RYAN, former president of Montgomery Ward and Co., and JEFF BURKETT, Chicago Cardinals football player.
Volunteers worked in the wreckage at dawn today, pulling out torn bodies and attempting to identify them while government and airlines investigators sought the cause of the mysterious baggage compartment fire.
Federal regulators and air transport officials have made special efforts to eliminate fire -- the most feared hazard in aviation -- since a Lockheed constellation crash at Reading, Pa., in July, 1946, was blamed on faulty wiring.
Yesterday's crash was the first involving a DC-6, the biggest, fastest and newest of the proud Douglas air transports. President TRUMAN uses one of the mainliners as his personal plane, the 'Independence.'
Douglas Aircraft officials said today that production of the DC-6 has been held up after the Reading crash to incorporate better fire protection devices in line with new requirements.
One of the devices was a fire detector installed in all parts of the plane not under constant surveillance by a crew member. That included the baggage compartment. Another device made it possible for the pilot to flood the area with carbon dioxide fire extinguisher as soon as the sensitive fire detector sounded an alarm.
The investigators searching the crash scene today speculated on a number of possibilities -- inflammable materials among the luggage, a fault in electrical wiring, or a defect in the hydraulic system.

PASSENGER LIST IN PLANE CRASH.
Chicago, Oct. 25 --(UP) -- United Air Lines today released the following list of occupants of a DC-6 airplane that crashed in Bryce Canyon, Utah, yesterday.
The Crew.
Capt. EVERETT L. McMILLEN, 516 S. Bayfront, Balboa Beach, Cal., pilot.
GEORGE GRIESBACH, 15803 S. Florwood, Lawndale, Cal., first officer.
HELEN F. MORRISSEY, 563 N. Heliotrope, Los Angeles, stewardess.
SHIRLEY E. HICKEY, 4401 Crest Drive, Los Angeles, stewardess.
SABINA JOSWICK, 3908 W. Olive St., Burbank, Cal., and 1635 E. 62nd St., Cleveland, O., assistant chief stewardess, UAL.
Passengers.
WALTER R. FOLEY, Tudor hotel, E. 42nd St., New York, employe of Pan American World Airways.
C. B. LAMBERT, JR., Princeton, N. J.
MRS. CHARLES NORTH and INFANT, Philadelphia.
DR. JOHN CEDERMARK, 23 Odengaten, Stockholm, Sweeden.
CASPAR R. RIESE, 555 S. Norden, Los Angeles, millinery manufacturer.
MRS. CASPAR R. RIESE, his wife, same address.
FRED O. MUNCH, 1631 N. Spalding, Chicago, attorney for the Air Lines Pilot association. (AFL).
DON TERHUNG, Burbank, Claif., Look magazine advertising representative.
JEFFERSON DAVIS BURKETT, 35, Chicago and Laurel, Miss., Chicago Cardinals football player.
JACK GUENTHER, New York, managing editor, Look magazine.
DON EDDY, 3061 Stanley Hills Dr., Los Angeles.
CLEMENT D. RYAN, 1120 Muirland Dr., La Jolla, Cal., department store executive and former president of Montgomery Ward & Co.
MRS. CLEMENT D. RYAN, his wife, same address.
MRS. MARK SODEN, 164 N. Euclid, Pasadena, Cal.
A. A. MURRAY, 7702 Forrest, Hammond, Ind.
MRS. A. A. MURRAY, his wife, same address.
DR. WILLIAM McDOUGALL, 1128 N. Lansdowne Ave., Lansdowne, Pa.
DR. E. C. FREY, York, Pa.
DR. LAWRENCE P. O'TOOLE, 14403 Grandmount, Detroit, Mich.
MR. SAMUEL LILIENTHAL, 5050 Marine Dr., Chicago.
MRS. SAMUEL LILIENTHAL, his wife, same address.
MR. MICHAEL LILIENTHAL, 431 N. Oakdale, Chicago, brother of SAMUEL.
MRS. MICHAEL LILIENTHAL, his wife, same address.
EDITH BLAIR, 5924 Melrose Ave., Hollywood, Cal.
D. B. HUGGARD, 802 Monroe St., Evanston, Ill.
DR. L. C. DE BERGH, Grapenhall, England.
MRS. L. C. DE BERGH, his wife, same address.
L. C. FRANCIS, 11 Severn Ave., Eastport, Md.
HARRY COHEN, 6619 Marlboro Ave., Pittsburgh.
MRS. J. R. JOHNSON, Melford, Mass.
MRS. A. HOWARD, El Cordova hotel, Coronado, Calif., wife of a marine major general.
J. L .NELSON, 1811 N. Maple, Chicago.
C. G. DAHLIN, 102 Terrace Dr., Sparta, Mich.
MRS. C. G. DAHLIN, his wife, same address.
W. H. GALVIN, 245 W. 14th St., New York, business address, Manhassett, N. Y., home address.
MISS MARJORIE NEBITT, 5541 Everett Ave., Chicago.
MR. M. SWEET, 1765 Huntington Dr., San Marino, Cal.
MRS. M. SWEET, his wife, same address.
MRS. T. BONSTRA and INFANT, 13340 S. Lakewood, Hynes, Cal.
MISS CECILIA DUSEK, 36113 Linfield Rd., Shaker Heights, O.
MRS. MARIE MANNING, 360 W. 785 St., Chicago.
W. P. ROBINETTE, 12820 Fair Hill Rd., Shaker Heights, O.
MRS. S. W. SMITH, Jamestown, R. I.
ARTHUR KAPITANOFF, 353 Newton Ave., Oakland, Cal.

Turner Sees Sabotage Cause
Indianapolis, Oct. 25 -- (UP) -- Col. ROSCOE TURNER, famous speed flier and aviation authority, said today the United Airlines transport crash in Bryce canyon, Utah, was "very likely a case of sabotage."
He said he was "certain" there could have been nothing "mechanically wrong" with the plane.
"There are many people in the world today who would like to see this country fall behind in the race for military and commercial air supremacy," TURNER said.
"I feel sure there are powers in the world who are gloating over this catastrophe."
Santa Monica, Oct. 25 -- (UP) -- Douglas Aircraft said today the baggage compartment of its DC-6 plane was equipped with a regulation fire extinction[sic] system, but admitted that, as on most planes, the compartment could not be reached from inside.
Chicago, Oct. 25 -- (UP) -- J. A. HERLIHY, United Airlines vice-president, said today that the firm's DC-6 Mainliners logged 3,500,000 miles of air miles before its flight 608 caught fire and ploughed into a plateau on the edge of Bryce canyon yesterday.

San Mateo Times California 1947-10-25

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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!