Peak District Air Accident Research

B-17E 41-9051 of the 813th BS / 482nd BG USAAF, crashed on Skiddaw near Keswick, on the 14th September 1943

 

 

 

The crew were on a cross country navigation flight from Alconbury, near Huntingdon, to RAF Turnhouse on the edge of Edinburgh (currently the city's airport). The accident investigators suggested that having been airborne for the lentgh of time it would have normally taken to fly from Alconbury to Edinburgh the pilot began a descent though the low cloud. While still in cloud at approximately 11:30am the aircraft flew into the south western side of Skiddaw and was destroyed by the crash and subsequent fire.

 

The aircraft crashed on the steep scree slope on the south western side of Skiddaw a couple of hundred feet below the summit. This photo shows the area in which the crash occurred.

 

Above is one of the few collections of wreckage on the scree, most of the remains are spread about over a fairly wide area.

 

Above is view from the site towards Derwent Water, this also shows how steep the slope on which the aircraft crashed is.

 

Five of the crew and one passenger are buried at Cambridge American Cemetery at Madingley near Cambridge, below are photographs of most of their graves.

 

Capt. Anderson, Pilot

 

1st Lt Sudbury, Co-pilot

 

Capt. Oeftiger, Navigator

 

S/Sgt Hills, Flight Engineer

 

S/Sgt Jacobsen, Radio Operator

 

Maj. Henderson, Passenger

 

2nd Lieutenant Raymond F. Diltz was later buried at the Golden Gate National Cemetery, San Francisco, California.

 

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Researching historic aviation accidents and locating crash sites throughout the British Isles