Lagrange, Me. – August 3, 1951

Lagrange, Maine – August 3, 1951

 

F4U Corsair
US Navy Photo

     On August 3, 1951, a pilot took off from the Quonset Point Naval Air Station in Rhode Island in a F4U-4 Corsair, (Bu. No. 82020), bound for the Squantum Naval Air Station in Massachusetts, and then on to Dow Air Force Base in Bangor, Maine.  While over Mane he radioed the control tower at Dow and advised he was having difficulty orienting himself.  Twenty-three minutes later his aircraft developed engine trouble and clipped some tree tops on a large hill which tore away section of the left wing.  The pilot managed gain altitude and bailed out at an altitude of only 400 feet and survived.  The aircraft went down and exploded in a thickly wooded are in the town of Lagrange, about one mile east of the town of Bradford.   

     Source: U. S. Navy accident report dated August 3, 1951.

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