On January 16, 1942, the actress Carole Lombard, famous for her
roles in such screwball comedies as My Man Godfrey and To Be
or Not to Be, and for her marriage to the actor Clark Gable, was
killed when the TWA DC-3 plane she is traveling in crashed en - 
route from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. She was only 33.

Doug Scroggins of Las Vegas spent years documenting the crash
site on Mount Potosi which is 35 miles southwest of Las Vegas.

Scroggins said "Flight 3 crashed near the 8,300-foot level of Mount Potosi with flaps retracted, and the plane in level flight. Something happened inside that cockpit and happened so fast that the pilot
could not react.”

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard.

1939

A TWA DC-3, similar to the accident aircraft.

N8082U, the United Airlines DC-8-61 involved, pictured in
1972 sporting a previous identifying design. Photo taken
at Seattle / Tacoma – Int. (SEA). 

       
        
       
Originating at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, United
Airlines Flight 173 stopped in Denver, and continued to
Portland on Thursday, December 28, 1978.

The pilot reported a problem with the plane’s nose landing
gear to the Portland tower, and, according to the National
Transportation Safety Board report, failed to monitor properly
the aircraft’s fuel state and to properly respond to the low
fuel state. The Board blamed pilot error for the crash

After circling Portland International Airport the DC-8 ran out
of fuel and crashed into two vacant houses and a grove of
trees at East Burnside Street, five miles southeast of the
airport and about 200 feet east of 157th Avenue  at around
6:15 P.M.

The jetliner, reportedly was carrying 172 adult passengers,
five infants and eight crew members.

     
    
    
Capt. Malburn "Buddy" McBroom (52), a World War II Navy
veteran and longtime United pilot, recovers in a Gresham,
Oregon hospital.  (KATU)        

United Flight 173 survivor Lynn Egli, right, stands with
KATU’s Steve Dunn at the memorial for the passengers
aboard United Flight 173 that killed 10 people. (KATU)

At 2:10 p.m. on December 5, 1945, five U.S. Navy Avenger
torpedo-bombers comprising Flight 19 took off from the Ft.
Lauderdale Naval Air Station in Florida on a routine three-
hour training mission.

After having completed their objective, the flight was to go
due east for an additional 67 miles, then turn north for 73
miles, and back to the air station after that, totaling a
distance of 120 miles. They never returned.

Two hours after the flight began, the leader of the squadron,
who had been flying in the area for more than six months,
reported that his compass and backup compass had failed
and that his position was unknown.

After two more hours of confused messages from the fliers,
a distorted radio transmission from the squadron leader was
heard at 6:20 p.m., apparently calling for his men to prepare
to ditch their aircraft simultaneously because of lack of fuel.

 
The crew of “Little Joe”, with Sanford G. Roy circled in red.   Defense (POW/MIA) Accounting Agency.

According to military officials this week, the remains of a World
War II airman were identified 80 years after his plane was shot
down during a bombing mission in Germany.

In the spring of 1944, U.S. Army Air Force Tech. Sgt. Sanford G.
Roy, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, was assigned to the 732nd Bombardment Squadron in the European Theater. 

A news release from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency 
said Roy and several other airmen were aboard the B-24H
Liberator "Little Joe" on a bombing mission to Brunswick,
Germany on April 8.

The plane was shot down by German forces and other airmen
flying near the aircraft did not report seeing any crew members
exiting "Little Joe" before it crashed. His name was engraved
on the Walls of the Missing at the Netherlands American
Cemetery. 

Sanford G. Roy.

NAVAL AIR STATION WHIDBEY ISLAND, Wash. —Lt. Cmdr.
Lyndsay P. Evans, 31, left, a naval flight officer, and Lt. 
Serena N. Wileman, 31, a naval aviator, were killed Tuesday
afternoon, Oct. 15, when their EA-18G Growler crashed near
Mount Rainier during a routine training flight at around 3:30
PM Pacific time.