Researching historic aviation accidents and locating crash sites in the Peak District & throughout the British Isles
Lockheed C-60A Lodestar 42-56014 of the 17th Ferrying Group, USAAF, flew into Beinn Nuis on the 30th September 1943
John R. MacKenzie
1st Lieutenant
Pilot
Killed
Richard H. Riddle
2nd Lieutenant
Co-pilot
Killed
William Silberg
Private
Radio Operator
Killed
John G. Johnson
Staff Sergeant
Engineer
Killed
Bernard T. Boone
Private 1st Class
Air Engineer
Killed
Louis C. Goldsmith
Major
Passenger
Killed
John M. Fantasky
Staff Sergeant
Passenger
Killed
The aircraft was on a transport flight from Prestwick on the Ayrshire coast to Stornaway in the Western Isles it had taken off at 09:49 GMT for the 1 hour 25 minute flight to Stornaway. The weather that day was cloudy with some rain, the cloud base was expected to be 1,500ft at the lowest.
When the aircraft failed to arrive at Stornaway and its crew could not be contacted a search was mounted, when the weather had improved 2 days later on the 2nd October the wreck was spotted close to the summit of Beinn Nuis on the Isle of Arran. It had flown into the eastern face of the mountain shortly after taking off from Prestwick, in much the same way as ATFERO Liberator AM261 had done north of Goat Fell two years earlier.
The crash site of this aircraft is close to those of B-24 42-41030 which was lost a month prior and B-17 42-97286 which crashed in 1944.
Four of the crew where laid to rest at Cambridge American Cemetery, they were: