Warbird Information Exchange

Recently I won an auction off of epay and got what I feel to be a good deal on a piece of a B-24 wreck and some supporting documents. As per info gained from the item description I believe it's part of an aluminum control surface spar since it's thin in height and has shreds of fabric still attached. The seller said it was part of the remains found after B-24H serial 42-95467 collided with B-24J 44-40608 northwest of Yuma Arizona where the United States Army Air Force had an airbase, Y-A-A-F Yuma Army Air Field, a gunnery school. A helpful aviation archaeologist informed me that all 12 were killed from both aircraft and that plane 608 was being ferried by 3 civilian workers and 2 Army crewmen from San Diego to Tuscon's modification center when it collided with the second B-24 which was on maneuvers. Parts were found near the "All American Canal" and a nearby farm field. The part is 11 1/2" long by 4" at it's widest. The man who owned (and presumably found) this particular part was a Sergeant stationed at YAAF. He inscribed the text "Part of two B-24's that crashed in mid air 10 miles north of Yuma Air Base 4/24/44 11 Dead". The other documents supported that the man who more than likely recovered the part was at Yuma during the time of the accident.

What are your thoughts? Does anyone have any documentation of the accident? or any pictures? Also were both the B-24s Consolidated made?




Thanks, Kyle

That's most certainly a piece of control surface. I'll go out and look at the B-24 ailerons I have in storage but that looks awful familiar as one of the aileron or elevator ribs, as noted by the screws and the fabric stay strips.

I may have a copy of the accident report in the office, but I've been to the site before and there's very little left of the wreckage. I left some info with the seller about the crash and I have no reason to doubt the validity of his piece with regard to the date and time and what he already knew. It appears to me that the original owner of this souvenir either knew someone involved in this mishap or might have been assigned to nearby Yuma AAF and had been pressed into accident investigation or clean-up detail during the war.

If I recall correctly, the mishap was between a Lib from a training base which collided with a brand-new B-24 being ferried from the factory (CVAC San Diego) en route to the Tucson (Arizona) Modification Center. It appears that both planes wanted to get a closer look at one another when the mishap took place. There was a full crew aboard the training ship and only essential flight crew aboard the brand-new ship (which was devoid of armament, turrets and special radio equipment, slated to have been installed in Arizona).

One of the many sad stories to come of the numerous training mishaps here in ZI during the war years. If you desire to PM me for more data I am sure I can send you copies of the newspaper articles of the day, maybe the accident report itself (or direction on who might have a copy available for you), some shots of what I found years ago whilst looking for the site and even an extra piece or two from the crash site it you want it. It's been 15 years at least since I was at this site, and for wreckchasers it's what is referred to as a "micro-site" as there's just very little evidence left that an accident of this scope and magnitude actually happened.

More I look at it and some of the stuff here in storage I'm thinking it's a piece of rudder rib given the size, taper and fabric strips and screws on both sides. Sometimes hard to tell with crash remnants....

Thanks for the info. PM sent

Kyle