Toledo, WA Marine Corps Transport Plane Lost, Dec 1946

FOG HIDES FATE OF PLANE.

CRASH SOUND REPORTED BY FARM FAMILY.

32 MARINES ABOARD TRANSPORT LOST IN WILDS.

Toledo, Wash. Dec. 11 (U.P.) -- The search for a giant Curtiss Commando Marine Corps transport plane, missing with 32 men aboard since yesterday, swung to Strawberry Mountain, 40 miles east of here, today when a farm family and a forest range reported they saw a plane in trouble and heard a crash yesterday afternoon.
Even as a winter storm with lashing rain and tree-top clouds closed in over central Washington, grounding search planes and obscuring the area, the unidentified forest ranger and the farm family identified as the COLEMAN'S of Randle said they heard a crash on the mountainside at 4:30 p.m. (PST).
Wings Ice-Coated.
The two-motored plane, one of six ferrying marines from San Diego to Seattle, last radioed in at 4:13 p.m. (PST) yesterday.
Since then its fate has been hidden by the low clouds, fog and storm conditions which were believed to have forced it down somewhere in the rugged back country with ice-coated wings.
It had no de-icing equipment and when the December ice and snow storm caught it, the pilot radioed asking permission to increase his altitude to avoid the ice already forming on his wings at 9,000 feet 30 miles south of here.
Report Termed False.
The COLEMAN'S and the ranger both reported the plane "seemed in trouble." Then came the rending, tearing sound of a crash.
Viscious flying weather, some of the worst of the year, hampered searching operations, but a daring coast guard pilot hunted his marine buddies despite the conditions.
His report via radio doused the hopes of rescue units alerted when reports began to filter in from residents of the Toledo area that a plane had gone down just outside of the town.
"I couldn't find a thing," his terse report said.
The pilot, R. E. OSTERBERG, said he had been radioed by a ground crew crash truck scouring the area that the plane was sighted three miles west of here.
"They were apparently misinformed," he said.

Nevada State Journal Reno 1946-12-12

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RAINIER SIGNAL BLAZE SIGHTED.

RESCUERS PRESS SEARCH FOR MARINE PLANE MISSING WITH 22 ABOARD.

Olympia, Wash., Dec. 17 (U.P.) -- Hope that a missing marine transport plane with 32 aboard had been located was strengthened tonight when an observer in a state patrol plane reported "something had plowed through timber" on the slopes of Mt. Rainier where a signal fire was sighted today.
State Patrol Chief H. W. ALGEO, who flew low over the area 20 miles west of Longmire, Wash., in one of the search planes called out, reported on his return that traces of what might be a plane crash visible.
"Something had ploughed through timber," he said. "The trees were knocked down. If it was the plane, the chances are it was covered with snow. Search parties on reaching the spot where the timber was knocked down may find something."
Hope For Survivors.
The signal fire, reportedly hand fed with buckets of gasoline, was sighted on the mountainside in the vicinity where the twin-engined Curtiss Commando plane was believed to have gone down in a storm last Tuesday while en route to Seattle.
Sighting the fire heightened hopes of finding at least some survivors among the 29 marines and three crewmen aboard. If all perished it would be the worst plane disaster in west coast history.
W. H. BRAY, an Eatonville rancher first spotted the signal fire 25 miles south of his community, and state forestry patrols and their towers, observing the fire through powerful glasses, reported it was apparently being hand-fed by buckets of gasoline.
Planes Join Search.
Two searching parties were dispatched into the area to seek the missing air transport which until now was believed to have carried all 29 marines and three crewmen to their deaths when it lost its way in a snow and sleet storm.
The plane was one of six transports ferrying marines from the San Diego naval base to the Sand Point naval station at Seattle. One plane made it through to Seattle but four others were forced to turn back to Portland, Ore., by the foul weather last Wednesday.
Search planes were called immediately from McChord Field and Seattle to scout low over the area where the fire was sighted, some 20 miles due west of the Longmire ranger station on the slopes of the 14,408 foot peak in central Washington.
A state patrol plane carrying Patrol Chief H. W. ALGEO took off from Olympia to guide the two searching parties from the air.
The fire was sighted in the Snoqualmie National Forest today when inclement weather which had hung over the entire Central Oregon and Washington mountain ranges for the past week lifted its grip as temperatures dropped to below freezing.

Nevada State Journal Reno 1946-12-18
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: The wreckage of this aircraft was finally located in November 1947, on the slopes of Mount Rainier, Washington.

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