List of accidents and incidents involving military aircraft (1955–1959)
This is a list of notable accidents and incidents involving military aircraft grouped by the year in which the accident or incident occurred. Not all of the aircraft were in operation at the time. Combat losses are not included except for a very few cases denoted by singular circumstances.
Aircraft terminology
Information on aircraft gives the type, and if available, the serial number of the operator in italics, the constructors number, also known as the manufacturer's serial number, exterior codes in apostrophes, nicknames in quotation marks, flight call sign in italics, and operating units.1955
;1955;5 January :Two Boeing B-47E Stratojets of the 44th Bomb Wing from Lake Charles AFB, Louisiana, collide over the Gulf of Mexico during refuelling Wednesday night, causing one to crash and the other to limp home to base with damage, sans its observer who bailed out over the Gulf. Air-sea rescue teams began a search of the Gulf in an area some 30 miles SE of Cameron, Louisiana, on the Gulf coast. B-47E-5-DT, 52-029, is lost with all three crew. Observer who bailed out is never found. The pilot of the recovered bomber stated that the lost plane apparently smashed down on his aircraft from above, "leaving wheel tracks on the cabin before it spun off to crash in Gulf waters. Capt. Morris E. Shiver, 29, of Albany, Ga., said 'we never knew what hit us' as the two six-jet bombers crashed together Wednesday night about 30 miles southeast of Cameron, La. An armada of planes and ships searched Thursday for the four airmen missing after the crash. Three of them were aboard the B47 which plunged into the Gulf, while the fourth, 1st Lt. Matthew Gemery, of Lakewood, Ohio, an observer, could have returned on his limping plane had he waited another minute before ejecting himself. They identified Maj. Sterling T. Carroll, 33, of Port Arthur, Tex., as the commander of the plane that returned, and Shiver as the pilot. The other three missing airmen were Maj. Jean S. Pierson, of Danville, Ind., aircraft commander; Capt. David O. Crump, of Albermarle, N.C. , copilot, and father of six children, and 1st Lt. Rodney P. Egelston of Levelland, Tex., observer-bombardier."
;6 January :"BRAMAN, Okla. – A crippled B47 six-engine jet bomber barrel-rolled, crashed and exploded in a wheat field a mile east of here Thursday, killing all three crewmen aboard. The plane, from McConnell Air Force Base, Wichita, Kan., disintegrated into hundreds of pieces after the explosion in this farm area of North Central Oklahoma near the Kansas border. Maj. Lawrence Tacker of McConnell AFB identified the dead as: Capt. Wayne E. Andrew of Yellow Springs, Ohio, commander of the plane; 1st Lt. Joseph C. Cook, co-pilot, Sunland, Calif.; Capt. William C. Berry, observer, Dayton, Ohio. The wives and families of the men are living temporarily in Wichita. O. O. McMasters, who lives here, said he heard the plane coming from the north and in distress. McMasters said it suddenly barrel-rolled and crashed. A crater 10 to 12 feet deep was left in the pasture. Bits of the crewmen's bodies and the plane were scattered for hundreds of yards. The plane landed on the Horne farm and the explosion was so great it rocked Bramen a mile away." B-47B-30-BW Stratojet, 51-2086, of the 3520th Flying Training Wing lost.
;6 January :A ferry pilot in a flight of three North American F-51 Mustangs from Norton Air Force Base, California, to McClellan Air Force Base, California, bails out into the Sierra Pelona Mountains N of Los Angeles in the first snowstorm of the season after suffering engine failure. Capt. John S. Thompson, of the 1736th Ferrying Squadron at Long Beach Air Force Base "trudged through the season's first heavy snow to a cafe at Acton in the mountains between Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley and the Mojave Desert, and called authorities. He said he had landed not far from where his F51 Mustang, crippled by a faulty propeller, crashed in the snow." The airframe came down near the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks, E of Soledad Canyon Road. F-51H-10-NA Mustang, 44-64638, wrecked.
;6 January :The crash of a Lockheed T-33A Shooting Star in the Shadow Mountains in the Mojave Desert, while en route from Perrin Air Force Base, Texas, to George Air Force Base, California, kills two crew just 18 miles short of their destination. "The plane crashed as the pilot lost radio contact with George AFB, Victorville, in a heavy snowstorm while approaching from Williams AFB, Phoenix, Thursday. A George helicopter sighted the wreckage on the east side of snow-covered Shadow Mountain, 18 miles northwest of Victorville, and a search party reached the plane later Friday. The Perrin trainer was on a routine flight. It had stopped at Williams to refuel." Perrin officials identified the dead as Capt. Donald McLaren, 30, and 2d Lt. Richard Delehanty, 24, both of Sherman, Texas. Ground parties had set out from March Air Force Base, Riverside, on Thursday to search for the plane and its crew as bad weather delayed an air search. Shadow Mountain, an isolated peak, is located about six miles due east of the main chain of the range. It has a peak elevation of 1,279 meters. T-33A-1-LO, 51-9115, was involved.
;6 January:"TOKYO – Two planes, presumably U. S. jets, collided high over Tokyo Bay Friday night in a blinding flash of light that startled thousands of residents. U. S. Far East Air Force headquarters said a Sabre jet fighter and a jet trainer from nearby Yokota Air Base were missing." "Tokyo – The U.S. Air Force today released the names of three Air Force pilots killed Thursday night when two jet planes collided over Tokyo Bay. The pilots were identified as 2nd Lt. Kenneth E. Heeter, son of Mr. and Mrs. Floyd E. Heeter of Emlenton, PA.; 2nd Lt. William O. Edwards, son of Mrs. E.D. Edwards of Beaucoup, Ill., and Capt. Milan Mosny, son of John Mosny, Little Falls, NY. Heeter was piloting an F86 Sabre jet and Edwards and Mosny were in a T33 trainer when their planes collided during a night training mission. After the collision the planes plummeted into Tokyo Bay. Two of the bodies have been recovered and search is continuing for the third. The Air Force did not say which bodies have been recovered. F-86D-45-NA Sabre, 52-3983, and T-33A-1-LO Shooting Star, 52-9749, were involved.
;7 January :A pilot suffered first and second degree burns when his North American F-86D Sabre crashed on takeoff from Norton AFB, California, when the engine flamed out as he departed the runway at 1619 hrs. 1st Lt. Robert L. Buss, from Selfridge AFB, Mount Clemens, Michigan, reached an altitude of ~400 feet after leaving the west end of the east-west runway and a speed of ~160 knots when the engine failed. It crashed about 400 yards from the air strip 140 feet W of Alabama Street and S of 3rd Street, near the Santa Ana River Wash. The plane was headed for Alabama Street, which was carrying heavy north-south traffic. "Officials at Norton praised the young pilot for his courage in making a 45-degree right turn with the dead plane to avoid crashing on the thoroughfare. Lt. Buss said he first struck a small embankment causing the fuel tank to explode before the plane began grinding to a halt 200 yards away. One wing was ripped from the craft on impact. The pilot's clothing caught fire when the fuel tank exploded. After crawling from the blazing craft he tore off his outer garments and rolled in the sand, saving his own life." Floyd K. Smith, chief of Office for Information Services at the San Bernardino installation, said that the pilot, rushed immediately to the base hospital, was from the 13th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron at Selfridge AFB. He is single and believed a resident of that base. Smith stated that Buss was on his way to the Fresno Air Terminal and had stopped for fuel at Norton earlier in the day. F-86D-40-NA, 52- 3794, was involved.
;9 January : A U.S. Navy Beechcraft with three aboard goes missing while on a flight from Monterey, California, to Norton AFB, California. On board were Lt. Marshall Hand, of La Mesa Village, Monterey, pilot; Lt. Lasley K. Lacewell, Jr., of Carmel, California, copilot; and a sailor passenger, Haskel Lewis Reichbach, fireman of the USS Badoeng Strait, berthed in San Diego. Still missing by mid-week, despite the search efforts of the Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard, Civil Air Patrol and Army National Guard, "At dawn Thursday, 51 military planes coordinated by the 42nd Air Rescue Squadron at March Air Force Base will continue the search." Wreckage discovered near Corona in Silverado Canyon Wednesday turned out to be from another accident several years ago. According to CAA officials at Ontario International Airport who were the last to hear from the missing craft, the plane is believed to be down somewhere in the snow-covered San Bernardino Mountains. The SNB-2 Navigator, BuNo 67260, crashed into a ridge on Cajon Mountain above Cajon Pass in a rugged area of chaparral. All on board killed. The crash site was discovered on 13 January at about the 5,000 foot level of Cajon Mountain.
;13 January :Former Navy pilot, now a test pilot for Douglas Aircraft Company, James B. Verdin, 36, is killed this date when he bails out of A4D Skyhawk, BuNo 137815, at 30,000 feet during a test flight near Victorville, California, and his parachute fails to open. Douglas company officials said that he radioed that he was bailing out shortly before the fighter-bomber crashed and burned. The wreckage was sighted at dusk 25 miles NW of Victorville between Haystack Butte and Highway 395 by helicopters from Edwards AFB. Verdin's body was not in the wreckage. The Los Angeles Sheriff's Office said a parachute was reported in the NE section of the county shortly after the crash. Search parties were dispatched to the area, which is partially snow-covered. Temperatures were near freezing. The pilot's body was spotted at 1500 hrs. Friday 14 January, on the desert floor eleven miles S of Kremer Junction, about a mile E of Highway 395. It was found ~three miles NE of the aircraft wreckage by a ground party composed of personnel from Camp Irwin, Edwards AFB and George AFB. "Aiding in the widespread search by several thousand men afoot, on horseback and automobile was a posse from the San Bernardino County sheriff's office under the direction of Capt. Jack Miller of the Victorville substation." Scores of military and civilian planes were also involved. Confirmation that it was Verdin's body was made by Edwards AFB officers who landed at the scene in a helicopter a few minutes after the discovery. Verdin's helmet and part of his canopy were found about a mile S of where his body fell. Coroner R. E. Williams said that the body was removed from the scene by Air Force personnel. YA4D-1 Skyhawk, BuNo 137815, the third pre-production airframe, written off. Verdin, as a Navy lieutenant commander, had set an absolute speed record of 752.9 miles per hour on a three-kilometer course over the Salton Sea in an F4D Skyray on 5 October 1953. He left the service in June 1954 to take a test pilot job with Douglas.
;15 January :The U.S. Air Force grounds its Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcars for a fleetwide engine inspection after incidents and accidents led to four forced or crashed landings within a week. A total of 145 paratroopers and Air Force crew were involved in the four accidents in which two men were killed. "Thirty-five airborne infantrymen and three crewmen parachuted to safety when an engine burst into flames Tuesday shortly after a C119 took off from Sewart Air Force Base, Tenn. The pilot and co-pilot were killed in that crash. Just hours before the Tennessee crash, 33 paratroopers bailed out when an engine caught fire on their plane near Miles City, Mont. Pilot – Capt. T. G. Johnson, of Sewart AFB then guided the plane to the Miles City Airport without incident. Thirty-three paratroopers jumped to safety over Fairbanks, Alaska, Thursday when one engine of their plane failed. Lt. Robert Bruckner, pilot; Lt. Herbert T. Kurse, co-pilot, and six crewmen rode the plane to safety at Ladd AFB. Another C119 engine failed Saturday shortly after the twin-engined Flying Boxcar took off from Ellsworth AFB, S. D., but the pilot safely landed the plane, which was carrying 33 paratroopers and three other crew members." Officers at Anchorage said that "Exercise Snowbird" schedules on troop and other aircraft movement would not be affected by the inspection, which is relatively simple. Sixty C-119s involved in the exercise arrived at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, from Sewart AFB, and 16 more were en route. Officers said that engine inspections were being performed at stations along the way as well as at Anchorage. The airframe lost in the fatal Sewart AFB incident was C-119G, 52-5949, c/n 11136, which crashed five mile NE of the base.
;16 January :"EL TORO – A 30-year-old Long Beach policeman, on weekend flying duties with the Navy, was killed Sunday when his prop-driven fighter plane crashed in a muddy field near here. The Los Alamitos Naval Air Station identified the pilot as Lt. Robert Everett Hagen, 5039 Rose Avenue, Long Beach. Hagen, who flew one weekend a month in a reserve squadron, had just taken off on a routine training flight in the Vought-Corsair plane. He leaves his wife, Betty, and four daughters; Mary Lou, 12, Patricia Ann, 6, and twins Jennifer Joan and Jane Margaret, 8."
;17 January :U.S. Navy Lockheed C-121J Super Constellation, BuNo 131639, c/n 4140, departs Harmon AFB, Newfoundland, at 0422 hrs. for a "routine transport flight" to its home-station, NAS Patuxent River, Maryland. At 0500, while over Prince Edward Island, two engines fail. The flight attempts to return to Harmon and a Boeing B-29 is dispatched to escort the crippled C-121, rendezvousing with it at 0504 over Cabot Strait, between Newfoundland and Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Twelve minutes later, the Constellation shut off its lights and other electrical equipment to facilitate the dumping of excess fuel. Within minutes the bomber lost radar contact with the transport and it vanished. The Constellation went into a stormy sea amidst clouds and fog. The B-29 circled the area and finally spotted five life rafts and life jackets amidst wreckage at 0645 hrs., but no survivors. The six crew and seven passengers, twelve men and one woman, were lost. The plane's pilot was identified as Lt. Cdr. L. R. Fullmer, Jr., of Little Rock, Arkansas. The woman aboard was identified as Seaman Jeanette W. Elmer, 22, of Syracuse, New York.
;19 January :"OXNARD – An Air Force T33 jet trainer made a successful forced landing in soft mud after its engine quit at 8,000 feet. Marine Maj. Edward LeFaivre, 33, Baltimore, Md., on temporary duty at Oxnard AFB, and Lt. Stanley Green, 23, Inglewood, were in the plane. Neither was injured, the Air Force said. The landing was made in a field about three miles south of the base." T-33A-1-LO, 52-9760, was repaired and placed back in service, finally being retired to MASDC on 1 February 1985.
;19 January :"TRIPOLI, Libya – Lt. Stanford Nall, 28, of Meridian, Calif., was killed Wednesday when his F86F Sabre jet crashed into the Mediterranean eight miles northwest of Wheelus Field, the U.S. Air Force said Friday."
;19 January :"HONOLULU – The Navy said Friday night the transport Fred C. Ainsworth rescued all seven survivors of a twin-engined Navy amphibian forced down Wednesday night in the Central Pacific. The transport radioed that it had picked up the men at 6:50 p.m., the Hawaiian Sea Frontier said. Only a few hours before the rescue, the seven airmen had transferred from their life raft to a 33-foot lifeboat dropped by an Air Force plane. The lifeboat was about 665 miles northwest of Kwajalein, destination of the plane which developed engine trouble while flying from Johnston Island. The survivors reported by a walkie-talkie dropped to them that there were no casualties but some fever had developed. Coast Guard Lt. Martin W. Flesh was commander of the search plane which sighted the survivors. In Washington, the Navy identified the seven as Lt. James Gotfray Measel, pilot, Norfolk, Va.; Ens. Harrison Bernard Nordstrom, Robert Nason Gardon, navigator, Watertown, Mass.; aviation electronics technician 2-c Robert D. Frame, Memphis, Tenn.; aviation machinists mate 2-c Edward James Nowark, Buffalo, N. Y.; aviation machinists mate 1-c William Clement Pavey, Warwick, R. I.; and aviation electronics technician 2-c Jerome Joseph Warras, Detroit, Mich."
;20 January :"SAN DIEGO – A Navy F9F2 Panther jet fighter crashed into a Navy Retraining Command prison area near here Thursday, killing the pilot. He was identified as Lt. Douglas Mosser, 31, of La Jolla, Calif. He is survived by his wife, Ann; a son, Bruce, 1; and his mother, Mrs. Anna S. Mosser, Chinook, Mont. Parts of the exploding craft struck a warehouse and set it afire. A wing was seen to fall from the plane as it came in for a landing at Miramar Naval Air Station, across U.S. Highway 395 across from the Retraining Command's Camp Elliott. It rolled over and struck between the warehouse and another building, about a mile from the Miramar runway. The Navy said none of its personnel, including the 900 Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard prisoners confined for various offenses, was in the immediate area of the crash."
22 January
;27 January :"STUTTGART, Germany – A crippled U. S. Army helicopter and a second helicopter racing to its rescue both crashed in flames Thursday night, killing all six aboard, the 7th Army announced Friday. German police said one of the helicopters developed trouble over an open field and cracked up in an emergency landing shortly before midnight. It burst into flames. A second helicopter on night maneuvers dropped down to rescue the three crewmen but also piled up and caught fire." These may have been either Bell H-13 Sioux or Sikorsky H-19 Chickasaws; Sikorsky H-34 Choctaws were not delivered to the Army until later in 1955.
;28 January :"WARNER SPRINGS, Calif. – A Navy jet fighter crashed Friday four miles north of here, killing the pilot. A second Navy man was fatally injured in a helicopter accident at the crash scene. The pilot was Ens. L. R. Nelson, 23, stationed at Miramar Naval Air Station at San Diego, 60 miles southeast of here. The second man was not immediately identified. He was an enlisted man stationed at a Navy fliers' mountain survival school near here. Nelson's F9F5 Panther jet hit the top of a knoll while making a low-level pass on routine maneuvers. The Navy said a Coast Guard helicopter called to the scene from San Diego began to roll down a slope on landing. Its tail rotor hit the ground and flew apart. A piece of the rotor struck the enlisted man."
;22 February
;11 March
;22 March
;14 April
;18 April
;28 April : Ten crew are KWF when a Boeing B-29A-40-BN, 44-61677, piloted by Victor C. Marston, of the 581st Air Resupply Group, 20th Air Force, on a routine low-level training mission, strikes a hill on the south end of Okinawa, three miles from Naha Airport, as it gropes through overcast. This was the 581st's first major accident. Sp3C Lee L. Bean, Artillery, U.S. Army, on duty with the First Composite Service Unit, is awarded the Soldier's Medal for his attempts to rescue any survivors when he voluntarily enters the fiercely burning wreckage in which oxygen bottles are exploding and removes several victims with no regard for his own safety before abandoning his efforts when it becomes clear that there are none alive.
;3 May :Four U.S. Army personnel are killed in a nighttime crash of a helicopter on main post at Fort Benning, Georgia. A Sikorsky H-19 Chickasaw crashed and burned in a heavily wooded area ~.5 miles from a housing development while on a routine training flight at Fort Benning. Killed were: Capt. Earl J. Scott, pilot; Capt. Robert F. Carter, pilot; SFC. Herman W. Punke; and Sgt. Horace G. Connor.
;5 May
;8 May
;13 May
;17 May :"PORTSMOUTH, England AP – A navy fighter plane crashed into the funnel of the 36,000-ton British aircraft carrier Eagle today during deck landing exercises in the English Channel. The pilot was seriously injured. The admiralty said the plane was given a signal to make another circuit as it came into land. The pilot increased speed but the engine stalled and the plane plowed into the rear of the funnel, burying the engine in the steam pipes." First cruise for full-scale training exercises without operational restrictions for the Westland Wyvern S Mk. 4, deployed aboard with Nos. 813 and 827 Squadrons, begins inauspiciously when Wyvern, VZ785, '135/J', of 827 Naval Air Squadron, attempting a go-around after misjudged approach, strikes ship's funnel, forcing the carrier to return to Portsmouth to have Armstrong Siddeley Python turboprop engine extracted from funnel "in which it was stuck like a dart." Repairs delay cruise by a fortnight. An article published in the 1976 debut issue of Air Enthusiast Quarterly, by William Green and Gordon Swanborough, with Harald Penrose, incorrectly gives the accident date as 30 September 1955.
;18 May : McDonnell Aircraft Corporation engineering test pilot Robert H. Strange is killed in the crash of an F3H-1N Demon naval fighter, BuNo 133495, after the J40 engine flamed out. He had just completed a dive from 40,000 feet, above Mach, to test dynamic pressure in the radar compartment under these conditions. The engine died above 25,000 feet. The pilot tried repeated restarts with no luck until he had descended to 5,000 feet, at which point he radioed that he was abandoning the plane and attempted to eject. The McDonnell-designed seat failed and Strange was killed as the jet impacted in a cornfield near Carrollton, Illinois, about 55 miles NE of St. Louis, barely missing a farm home "as it plowed a 15-foot furrow in the earth. Strange's body was about 100 feet from the wreckage." Strange was born in Sumter, South Carolina, in 1922. He joined the U.S. Navy as an aviation cadet in June 1942, and ended up flying with Marine air, 1943–1946. He was awarded the Air Medal, with two gold stars, and the Distinguished Flying Cross. He graduated from Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1948, and did engineering work for Curtiss-Wright and Frigidaire for three years. He then served with the Marines again from 1951 to 1953. Strange joined the McDonnell Corporation as a design engineer in November 1953, becoming a test pilot in October 1954. He is survived by his wife Shirley, and four children, David, Douglas, Susan and Jeffrey.
;25 May
;27 May
;3 June : The General de Brigada Aérea of the Fuerza Aérea Boliviana, Mayor Jorge Jordán Mercado, is killed when his aircraft crashes in Tapacari in eastern Bolivia. An air force sergeant also dies in the accident. The two-sentence Associated Press item announcing Mercado's death, widely printed, does not identify the type of aircraft involved. The major was one of the first graduates of the Escuela Militar de Aviación , founded in 1916, and became its first commander in 1931. "He was a military aviator outstanding performance. He commanded the Bolivian aviation as First Commander of the Air Force campaign during the Chaco War. The vast escalation during the Chaco War forced the school and most of the Bolivian air force to settle at Villamontes...". "He participated in operations in support of Corrales and Toledo forts He received the Military Merit in the grade of "Comendador". He later served as Director of Aviation at the Ministry of Defence. He was member of the Supreme Court of Military Justice and Chief of Aviation until his death in the plane crash in the Quebrada of Patani, Cochabamba," this date. Grupo Aéreo de Caza 31 – "Gral. Jorge Jordán Mercado", Bolivian Aerial Fighter Group "31" is named for the late officer.
;4 June
;22 June
;5 July
;14 July
;4 August
;8 August
;11 August
;19 August
;25 August
;30 August
;8 September
;9 September
;13 September
;14 September
;6 October
;13 October
;14 October
;15 October
;24 October
;25 October
;2 November
;4 November : While operating in the Pacific with the 7th Fleet, USS Hancock flies aboard Vought F7U-3 Cutlass, BuNo 129586, 'D', of VF-124, but tailhook floats over all wires, jet hits barrier, and ejection seat is jarred into firing when nose gear collapses. Pilot LTJG George Barrett Milliard, in his seat, is thrown 200 feet down the deck and suffers fatal injuries when he strikes the tail of an AD Skyraider. Airframe written off.
;17 November
;17 November
;29 November
;30 November
;December
;7 December
;9 December
;15 December
;16 December
1956
;5 January;10 January
;20 January
;26 January
;27 January
;30 January
;31 January
;1 February
;8 February:A flight of eight Royal Air Force Hawker Hunter F1s was redirected to another airfield due to inclement weather. With low visibility over the alternative airfield and little fuel left, six aircraft ran out of fuel and crashed, with one pilot killed.
;14 February
;16 February
;17 February
;24 February
;2 March
;3 March
;4 March
;10 March
;13 March
;21 March
;22 March
;22 March :NACA Boeing P2B-1S Superfortress, BuNo 84029,, "Fertile Myrtle", with seven crew aboard, carrying the second Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket, BuNo 37974, NACA 144, for airdrop from, experiences runaway starboard outer propeller while climbing over Palmdale. Pilot Stanley P. Butchart immediately noses over and releases the rocket plane early, pilot John B. "Jack" McKay dumps rocket propellants before landing on Rogers Dry Lake, whereupon the number four prop disintegrates, throwing blades into the starboard inner engine, through the fuselage, and into the port inner engine. "Butchart's aileron controls were useless. Copilot Neil A. Armstrong nursed the bomber home on the other three engines and made a perfect landing. All of the fliers are NACA personnel based at nearby Lancaster."
;23 March :On 1 February 1957, an Escondidio, California, rancher filed suit against the government for damages caused by the crash of a Navy jet plane on this date. "His Federal Court complaint, asking $6,230.50, said as a result of the crash, his hens stopped laying, his crops were trampled and a fissure in his well caused it to dry up."
;25 March :First prototype Martin XB-51, 46-0685, crashes in sand dunes near Biggs AFB, El Paso, Texas, killing both crew. Pilot was Maj. James O. Rudolph, 36, who was dragged from the crash site with severe burns and conveyed to Brook Army Hospital at San Antonio where he succumbed to his injuries 16 April 1956. Eddie Wilkerson, a high school tennis coach, whose car was narrowly missed by the bomber, stopped and pulled the pilot from the wreckage. The flight engineer was S/Sgt. Wilbur R. Savage, 28, of Rte. 3, Dawsonville, Georgia. The aircraft was staging to Eglin AFB, Florida at the time of its crash for filming of scenes for the motion picture Toward the Unknown. After stopping for refuelling, the bomber began its take-off run at 1030 hrs., but smashed through the fence at the end of the southwest runway and then began to disintegrate, spreading wreckage along a 250-yard trail. There was some initial confusion about the aircraft type as rescuers found the "Gilbert XF-120" name applied to the airframe for the film on the wreckage.
;26 March :"MASONTOWN, Pa. – A twin-engine Navy plane carrying a crew of three crashed Monday into the Monongahela River. State police said there was no sign of any survivors."
;26 March :"PENSACOLA, Fla. – Three fliers were killed and a fourth is missing in a fiery collision of two naval trainer planes over Baldwin County, Alabama, Monday. The planes were from Saufley Field, an auxiliary of the Naval Air Station."
;Pre-27 March :"SAN DIEGO – Ryan Aeronautical Co. spokesmen Tuesday disclosed three company employes were burned when fire damaged a secret vertical-takeoff jet aircraft. The fire occurred in a hangar at Edwards Air Force Base, the spokesmen said. Those burned were Walter Kirby, Cardiff, John Howard, San Diego, and Howard Bianchi, Escondido." This was the Ryan X-13 Vertijet.
;28 March
;28 March :A McDonnell F-101 Voodoo crashes on the Mojave Desert just N of Edwards Air Force Base, California, after civilian test pilot William Ross successfully bails out. F-101A-1-MC, 53-2419, written off.
;28 March :The 300-ton motorship Motul suffers an engine room explosion and fire while ~60 miles off the coast of Yucatán in the Bay of Campeche early this date. A Mexican Navy Consolidated PBY Catalina responds, and takes aboard some of the 35 survivors of the sunk Motul who took to life rafts, but as it attempts takeoff one of its propellers breaks, disabling it. The following day, the lost ship's 14 crew, 21 passengers, and three naval aviators are all rescued by the Mexican coast guard cutter Virgilio Uribe, which also takes the PBY in tow as it makes its way to Progreso, Mexico.
;30 March :Three crew are killed and two seriously injured as a Norton AFB, California,-based Beechcraft C-45 Expeditor on a training flight to McNary Field, Salem, Oregon, rams a rocky hilltop in squally weather on Friday night and catches fire seven miles S of Klamath Falls, Oregon. The survivors who were thrown clear of the wreckage, PFC. Leroy D. Wigglesworth, of Gladstone, Oregon, and A2C Virginia F. Bowman, of Portland, Oregon, were taken to a hospital suffering from shock, burns and broken bones. It took rescuers 2 1/2 hours to work their way up a steep hillside to reach the wreckage. They reported three bodies were burnt. The Air Force withheld the identities of the dead pending notification of next of kin. C-45H, 52-10957. The plane was coming in for a refueling stop when it struck the 4,785-foot high ridge. The three victims were: Lt. Col. Frank Loughary, of 250 5th Street, San Bernardino, chief of military personnel division for the San Bernardino Air Materiel Area, survived by a brother in South America; Lt. Col. Mabry Simmons, who was taking graduate studies at Norton related to his Air Force post at University of Southern California, survived by his widow at 865 Morado Place, Altadena; and S/Sgt. Ray Matzinger, unmarried, his mother Velma Govera lives 11557 Eldridge Street, San Fernando, California. A2C Bowman was catching a ride home from Eglin AFB, Florida, where she is stationed, as was PFC Wigglesworth, stationed at Fort Ord, California.
;3 April :A Boeing B-29 Superfortress departs Randolph AFB, San Antonio, Texas, and heads northwest on a training mission. Shortly thereafter, at 1512 hrs., it strikes the WOAI-AM radio mast, knocking it down, and crashing into a cornfield N of the tower. Five of six crew survive.
;3 April :USAF Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar with five aboard goes missing on a flight between Tachikawa Air Base and Ashiya Air Base, Japan. Wreckage sighted on 5 April at the 6,000 foot level of a 6,100-foot peak on Shikoku Island, 20 miles S of Saijo, and more than 400 miles SW of Tokyo. "An attempt will be made Friday to reach it with a rescue team dropped by parachute."
;5 April :Grumman test pilot Ernie von der Heyden bails out over Edwards Flight Test Center, California, when his Grumman F11F Tiger develops trouble of an undisclosed nature while on a routine test flight. "He landed at the edge of a dry lake in uninhabited desert country 10 miles from Edwards Air Force Base. He was picked up by helicopter and taken to the Edwards hospital for treatment of what the Air Force called non critical injuries. The plane crashed in the lake bed." Von der Heyden lives in Lancaster with his wife and three children. F11F-1, BuNo 138608, lost due to engine failure, loss of control.
;6 April
;6 April :A USAF Douglas C-124C-DL Globemaster II, 52-1078, c/n 43987, of the 1501st Air Transport Wing, crashes just after takeoff from Travis AFB, California, killing three of the seven crew on board. Aircraft stalled at 100 feet, dropped one wing and plunged to the ground just SW of the base. Airframe splits into three sections, burns. The cause is attributed to incorrect assembly of the elevator and aileron control cables.
;6 April : A Northrop F-89C Scorpion crashes in flames between Great Falls, Montana, and Malmstrom Air Force Base, just after a 1630 hrs. takeoff from that base, killing both crew. The navigator was identified as 2d Lt. Alton A. Nelson, 22, of West Sacramento, California. He had been assigned to the 1708th Ferrying Wing, Detachment 1, at McClellan AFB, California. The name of the pilot was withheld. The plane was being ferried to a base in Alaska.
;19 April :A U.S. Navy Grumman F9F-6 Cougar, out of NAS Glenview, Illinois, loses control at over Lake Michigan. Reserve pilot ejects but his chute apparently fails to deploy. The plane falls into shallow water about a half mile off of Fort Sheridan and the canopy from the aircraft is recovered by personnel at the fort but there was no sign of Lt. Cmdr. Gordon Arthur Stanley, 35, assigned to the staff of the chief of naval air reserve training. Stanley, formerly of Oakridge, Oregon, lived with his wife and three children in Arlington Heights. "Officials at Glenview said the plane was one of two on a training flight. The flyer who returned reported that a few seconds after the planes went into clouds at 19,000 feet, Stanley reported by radio that he was 'losing control'. Glenview sent out a helicopter and flying boat PBY air-sea rescue unit, and within a few minutes both reported seeing the lost plane in shallow water half a mile off the fort. Neither saw any trace of the pilot." Navy officials said that the accident occurred at 1330 hrs. and that they were notified by phone from Fort Sheridan within five minutes. The rescue units were airborne at 1340 hrs. Stanley was an ace, having scored eight victories with VF-27 while flying from the USS Princeton.
;19 April: A Lockheed TV-2 Shooting Star from an auxiliary field of Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas, with one aboard, and a twin-engine Beechcraft from NAS Corpus Christi, with three aboard, collide over the outskirts of Corpus Christi, killing all four, and scattering wreckage over an area of a square mile. There was only minor property damage on the ground and no injuries reported. All the bodies are recovered.
;22 April
;24 April
;2 May
;8 May
;15 May
;15 May
;5 June
;9 June
;9 June :Shorts chief test pilot, New Zealand-born, ex-RNZAF, RAF, and ETPS-trained Squadron Leader Walter J. "Wally" Runciman, flying Short SB.6 Seamew, XE175, the fourth Seamew prototype, in a demonstration at the Sydenham Air Display, Sydenham Airport, Belfast, Northern Ireland, is killed when the exhibition "went wrong" and the aircraft crashed. The aircraft entered a slow roll. The nose fell and the pilot seemed to be trying to finish with a half loop, but with insufficient height, the aircraft struck the runway nose first, with fatal result. This airframe had been flown by Runciman for a series of sales tours in 1956 to Italy, Yugoslavia and West Germany.
;16 June
;26 June :A USAF Boeing KC-97 of the 509th Air Refueling Squadron, 509th Bomb Wing, crashes shortly after an 1850 hrs. take off from Walker AFB, New Mexico, coming down in an open field 10 miles S of the base near Roswell, killing all eleven crew. The tanker caught fire shortly after departure on what the Air Force described as a training flight. Observers on the base flight line said that it spun into the ground and exploded. "Word of the crash was not released by the Air Force until more than three and a half hours after the flaming tragedy, on orders of Col. George W. Porter, the base commander."
;28 June
;6 July :"ST. JOHN'S, Nfld. -A U.S. Air Force Stratotanker exploded and crashed in flames Friday in a desolate mountain area 45 miles east of Goose Bay air base in Labrador. All six crew members apparently were killed. Helicopters braved dangerous winds to hover over the crash scene. Only scattered wreckage was seen from the air. The pilot of an accompanying Stratotanker said he did not see any parachutes after the four-engined KC97 exploded and fell. The Air Force said the plane was one of four Stratotankers from Lake Charles Air Force Base on temporary duty at Goose Bay."
;6 July :"HONOLULU -A Marine helicopter rescue team Friday identified from the air the wreckage of a two-engine Marine plane which crashed in rugged Oahu mountains with four men aboard. The Navy said the rescue team, which apparently was unable to land near the wreckage immediately, reported 'the tail section is still smouldering.' There were no reports of whether anyone is alive the Navy said."
;7 July
;7 July :"EL SEGUNDO -Test pilot Raleigh Guynes of Douglas Aircraft Co. bailed out safely from an F4D1 Skyray which went into a spin and crashed into the Pacific Ocean".
;8 July :The pilot of a North American F-86F Sabre out of Norton AFB, California, is killed when he crashes in San Dimas, California, on Sunday afternoon, on W. Allen Street, digging a hole six feet deep and 30 feet wide. The aircraft, which one witness said came across San Dimas in a southeasterly direction, passed over a park and narrowly missed a group of 200 Little League players picnicking there before striking power and telephone lines and exploding in the street where it ruptured a gas main and set fire to trees in the yard of Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Bayer. Several grass fires were extinguished as well. Air Force officials withheld the pilot's identity pending notification of the next of kin. His body was not immediately recovered. The Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, reported on 10 July that the pilot was identified as Lt. Oliver L. Dillingham, 23, from Williams AFB, Arizona. He entered the Air Force in 1950 and saw service in Korea in 1954. The story also adds that the explosion after the crash set a house alight and slightly burned two girls.
;13 July
;13 July :A USAF Boeing B-47E-100-BW Stratojet, 52-0572, of the 40th Bomb Wing crashes and explodes at the end of the runway on take off from Smoky Hill Air Force Base, Kansas, killing all four crew. "Witnesses said the plane just got off the runway and cleared a fence before crashing and bursting into flames. The explosion followed."
;13 July :Two North American F-86 Sabres, of the 82d Fighter Squadron, collide in mid-air ~eight miles E of Dixon, California, and crash in an open field, the California Highway Patrol reports. Both pilots eject and parachute safely and are recovered by state officers, a patrolman said. The pilot of Gov. Goodwin J. Knight's plane, flying in the vicinity, spotted the chutes and radioed their position and then served as an observer until the CHP located the pilots. They were found to have suffered only minor injuries. "A spokesman at Travis Air Force Base identified the pilots as 1st Lt. Albert C. Mitchell and 1st Lt. Albert F. Crews of the 82nd Fighter Squadron at Travis."
;13 July :"EL CENTRO -The pilot of an AD6 Skyraider was killed Friday when his plane crashed on the desert 25 miles northwest of here during a practice dive bombing mission. The Navy said he was attached to a fleet air gunnery unit at the El Centro Naval Auxiliary Air Station. His name was withheld pending notification of the family."
;13 July :"Belington, W. Va., July 13, UP – A navy Fury jet fighter plane en route from Patuxent, Md. naval air test center to Columbus, O., crashed, exploded and burned on a farm north of here today, killing the pilot Lt. Cmdr. Horatio Gates Sickel Jr." Aircraft was FJ-3, BuNo 136091.
;15 July :"CLAREMORE, Okla. -An Air Force pilot, with both engines gone, 'deadsticked' his C45 transport to a perfect landing between two underpasses on an uncompleted toll highway near here Sunday. The pilot, Capt. Charles Bixel, 38, Riverside, Calif., and his sole passenger, A-2C Josef Grafues, St. Louis, were not hurt. The plane was undamaged."
;16 July : Test pilot Andrey G. Kochetkov attempts first flight in first of three flying prototypes of the ultra long-range, high-altitude single-seat super interceptor Lavochkin La-250, but encounters an unexpectedly rapid roll moment and loses control. Pilot survives.
;17 July :"FALLON, Nev. -The runway arresting gear, plus his own sprinting ability, saved Navy jet pilot Stanley A. Roitz of Trinidad, Colo., from death or serious injury Tuesday. Roitz, 22, who just made lieutenant junior grade Monday, was taking off in an FJ3 fury jet when it suffered a sudden power failure before leaving the runway, at the Fallon Naval Auxiliary Air Station. The craft plunged into the net-like arresting gear at the end of the runway and came to a halt as it tumbled over the gear. Roitz dived out head first, somersaulted to land on his feet and took off running. The plane's fuel tanks exploded a moment later, setting a fire that consumed the craft. Roitz is regularly stationed at Moffett Field, Calif., but was here with his squadron for aerial gunnery practice." FJ-3, BuNo 136139. upgraded to FJ-3M. with VF-191 in 1956, written off this date.
;27 July
;31 July
;2 August: U.S. Navy F2H-3 Banshee, BuNo 126341, of VF-64, out of NAS Alameda, California, crashes at 1535 hrs. at the ~11,000 foot level on Mt. Pinchot in the Eastern Sierra Nevadas near Bishop while on a practice strafing run, pilot LTJG Tulane Oden Phillips killed.
;6 August
;16 August
;27 August
;31 August
; 31 August :Boeing WB-50D Superfortress, 49–315, c/n 16091, "The Golden Heart",, of the 58th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, out of Eielson AFB, Alaska, crashed early in the morning this date on a sandy island in the Susitna River, 50 miles NW of Anchorage, Alaska, killing all 11 crew. The flight was last heard from at 0302 hrs., local time, when it was over Talkeetna, a check-in station 50 miles N of the ten-mile-long island. The wreckage was found about 5 1/2 hours later by a member of the 71st Air Rescue Squadron. "All that remained when helicopters landed at the crash scene was a smoking pile of rubble."
;10 September
;10 September
;17 September
;17 September
;21 September
;27 September
;1 October
;6 October
;10 October
;10 October :Two U.S. Air Force F-86 Sabre Jets collided over Lake Michigan. The Lake freighter S/S Ernest T. Weir, Captain Ray R. Redecker, rescued one of the pilots after he spent three hours in the water. Several other ships in the area participated in an unsuccessful attempt to locate the second pilot.
;18 October :A Lockheed P2V-2N Neptune, of Squadron VX-6, crashes in a storm at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, during Operation Deep Freeze II. Captain Rayburn Hudman, USMC; Lieutenant David W. Carey, USNR; Aviation Electronics Technician 1 Charles S. Miller, USN; and Aviation Machinist’s Mate 1 Marian O. Marze, USN, are KWF.
;24 October
;25 October
;26 October
;November
;6 November
;9 November
;24 November
;5 December
;7 December
;19 December
;30 December
1957
;10 January : A Boeing B-52D Stratofortress, 55-0082, of the 70th Bomb Squadron, 42d Bomb Wing, crashes near Loring AFB, Maine, during a training flight. The Instructor Pilot directed the co-pilot to close his eyes while he put the aircraft into an unusual attitude, and then instructed him to recover. The co-pilot misread the data from the flight instruments and took the wrong corrective action, causing the airframe to disintegrate. There were nine men aboard – the crew plus the IP, and two instructors. The co-pilot survived. It was his third time in a crash, and his third time as the sole survivor. This was the fourth B-52 lost, and the first D-model attrited.;10 January :An Air Force Boeing KB-29P Superfortress, 44-84029, built as a B-29B-55-BA, crashes on landing at Bergstrom Air Force Base, near Austin, Texas, killing six crewmen and injuring three others.
;11 January
12 January
One of two U.S. fighter jets flying over Long Island “disappeared” as both began to descend from a 40,000 foot altitude. The missing pilot was Lt. William J. O’Donnell, a Korean War veteran and a member of the Navy’s 836th Squadron, which was based at the Brooklyn Air Station. He took off from Floyd Bennett on a two hour training mission. Authorities believe O’Donnell’s plane either exploded or ran out of fuel while he was attempting to maneuver back to his base. His plane is believed to have gone down in the ocean 10 miles south of West Hampton Beach. Despite extensive search efforts, no trace or any evidence of the plane were ever found.
;14 January :"LONG BEACH – Another death resulted yesterday from a plane crash that already had taken three lives. Mrs. Margaret Willock, 58, died at Seaside Hospital of burns suffered when a Marine Skyraider smashed into the bindery where she was working Monday morning. Two other persons working in the bindery were killed in the crash. They were Austin W. Rafferty, 43, of Long Beach, co-owner of the binding firm, and Mrs. Ethyl Foust, 28, of Wilmington, an employe. First Lt. Dale Fortine, 26, of Costa Mesa, the pilot of the single-engine plane, was killed when his parachute failed to open after he bailed out of the diving craft at low altitude. Fortine's radioman, 20-year-old Cp. Joseph P. Licato, parachuted safely from the stricken plane. Capt. John Lippard, public information officer at El Toro Marine Station, where the plane was based, said the right leg and sleeve of Fortine's flying suit were found to have been burned off. Lippard said the pilot's leg was severely burned. This was seen as an indication that the pilot stayed with the plane as long as he could, said Lippard. Reports from witnesses indicated Fortine was trying to steer the plane away from a schoolyard about a block from the crash scene. The plane plowed through a warehouse before hitting the bindery."
;15 January :A major fire guts two maintenance hangars at McChord AFB, Washington, destroying a Douglas C-118 Liftmaster, a Douglas C-124 Globemaster II, and damaging two smaller planes. The fire broke out about 0530 hrs. PST and was brought under control two hours later. C-118A, 53-3263, and Douglas C-124C, 52-1027, were destroyed. Two other planes, a Lockheed T-33 jet and a de Havilland Canada L-20 Beaver were damaged.
;17 January
;17 January :A Boeing WB-50D Superfortress, 48-093, c/n 15902, of the 58th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, fully loaded with fuel for a 3,700-mile weather reconnaissance flight, crashes two minutes after a pre-dawn takeoff from Eielson AFB, Alaska, with the wreckage and fuel burning in an inferno 200 yards long and 50 yards wide on the flat land three miles N of the base. All twelve crew are killed.
;17 January :"HONOLULU – A Navy pilot, Lt. Kenneth R. West Jr., 24, of Burlingame, Calif., was killed when his FJ3 Fury jet crashed in the ocean shortly after takeoff from Kaneohe Air Station."
;17 January :The crash of Martin B-57E-MA Canberra, 55-4283, c/n 385, at Biggs AFB, Texas, kills two and injures a third. Killed are 1st Lt. Russell E. Hanson, 24, Cudahy, Wisconsin, and 1st Lt. Thomas H. Higgins, 24, Walled Lake, Michigan.
;19 January :A U.S. Navy Douglas R5D Skymaster, attempting a late afternoon landing at NAS Sand Point, Seattle, Washington, skids in snow on its third attempt and flips onto its back, losing the port wing in the process. The 46 aboard escape injury. Transport was out of NAS Los Alamitos. California.
;20 January :As three Grumman F9F Panthers out of NAS Glenview, Illinois, manoeuver into the landing pattern at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, two collide at ~1,000 feet, their wings become locked together, and both jets crash. One pilot ejects but his chute fails to function, his body found about a half mile from the wreckage of his plane. The other pilot was found in the burned wreckage of his fighter. Killed are Lt. Cmdr. Charles R. Walton, 38, of Wheaton, Illinois; and Lt. Jerome Fishel, 33, Urbana, Illinois. Cmdr. Benjamin G. Preston, executive officer at Glenview, was leading the two pilots on a training mission. He said that they were Navy reserve officers, and that they were en route to NAS Miramar, California, for a two-week training cruise.
;20 January :A California Air National Guard North American F-86A Sabre of the 196th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, Ontario International Airport, explodes over the eastern city limits of San Diego and crashes in open country a mile N of Lake Murray Reservoir. The pilot, Capt. Robert E. Dixon, of Spring Valley, California, is killed. The reservoir keeper and others saw the plane explode as it flew under storm clouds and headed north. Wreckage fell over a mile-square area on the south slope of Black Mountain.
;20 January :A Beechcraft C-45 Expeditor on the final leg home to Nellis AFB, Nevada, strikes a snow-shrouded mountain near Baker, California, killing the three on board. En route from March AFB, California, the transport struck 7,933-foot Clark Mountain, adjacent to the Baker grade at ~1600 hrs. Visibility was zero with a snowstorm above the 4,500-foot level. The plane impacted at the 5,000-foot level. "The crash scene, near the Nevada state line, was reached first by California Highway Patrol officer Frederick J. Bosworth. He hiked three miles to the crash site after an unidentified truck driver called the CHP station in Barstow, telling of the crash. At first Nellis authorities did not confirm that a military plane was involved. But a casualty convoy was dispatched from the Las Vegas base and the Air Force asked the San Bernardino County Coroners Office to investigate. Chief Dep. Coroner Edward P. Doyle left San Bernardino late last night for the Highway 91 crash site." The C-45 was assigned to the 865th Aircraft Warning Squadron at Nellis. The flight had originated at Luke AFB, Arizona, with March AFB as a stopover.
;22 January :A Boeing KC-97 Stratotanker on a training flight from Westover AFB, Massachusetts to Griffiss AFB, New York, crashes in a densely wooded section in the Adirondack Mountains in northern Herkimer County, about eight miles SE of Atwell, New York, killing all seven crew. The tower at Griffiss had directed the tanker on Tuesday night to leave the approach pattern over the field and let another plane land first. There was no further contact. A helicopter spotted the wreckage on 24 January. "At Washington, the Air Force said the following men were aboard the plane: Maj. Charles D. Mellinger, Tacoma; Maj. Roland L. Urquhart, Warwick, R.I.; 1st Lt. Fred V. Defrench, Bedford, Ohio; 1st Lt. Alsia C. Stewart, Palestine, Tex.; Sgt. Raymond E. Noah, Paducah, Ky.; Sgt. Lars I. Bergstrom, West Caldwell, N.J., and Sgt. Joel V. Blackwell, Clairton, Pa." KC-97G, 53-0222, c/n 17004, of the 384th Air Refueling Squadron. is involved.
;22 January :A U.S. Navy Douglas R5D-3 Skymaster, BuNo 50869. c/n 10546, carrying a funeral party to NAS Glenview, Illinois, diverts to Willow Run Airport, Michigan, due to bad weather over Illinois. Two minutes from landing, at 2133 hrs., the aircraft strikes the ground on vacant land near a gravel pit in a snowstorm and breaks up as it bounces and decelerates. Six of seven aboard crawl or are pulled from the wreckage. One man, a Coast Guard lieutenant commander, is pronounced dead at the University of Michigan Hospital. The wreckage burns and the casket on board is scorched in the fire. The flight originated at NAS Miramar, California, with an intermediate stop at Albuquerque to pick up the body of a Navy pilot who was recently killed. Cause was thought to be faulty altimeter readings due to a frozen drain in the pitot static system.
;24 January :Two Boeing B-47B Stratojets of the 19th Bomb Wing, Homestead AFB, Florida, have mid-air near the Isle of Pines, Cuba, during refueling operations. B-47B-50-BWs, 51-2332, and -2352, collided during an early night operation.
;25 January
;25 January :A USAF North American F-86 Sabre goes missing in the Pacific off Guam this date. The pilot is identified on 27 January as 1st Lt. Charles Fair of Indianapolis, Indiana.
;25 January :"A jet pilot parachuted to safety this morning as his F86A fighter crashed on the desert five miles southeast of Boron. The pilot, 2nd Lt. Jarman A. Lynch, 24, from San Dimas, was not injured, according to a spokesman at nearby Edwards Air Force Base. The Air Force said Lynch bailed out at about 9 a.m. after he lost control of the jet. Lynch of the 196th Fighter Interceptor Squadron of the Air National Guard at Ontario was on a routine flight from Vincent, Calif. to Ontario. Lynch landed close to the plane wreckage."
;27 January :Douglas C-124C-DL Globemaster II. 50-0088, c/n 43226, of the 1st Strategic Support Squadron, Strategic Air Command, Biggs Air Force Base, Texas, departs Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, with 13 and a load of cargo aboard, bound for McChord AFB, Washington, and Biggs AFB. An engine catches fire shortly after takeoff and the transport attempts a return to Elmendorf. In heavy fog and freezing temperatures, the pilots crash land at 0915 hrs. AST on the ice of Cook Inlet very close to shore, the aircraft coming down intact. "Rescue operations were completed 55 minutes later by three helicopters of the 31st Air Rescue Squadron, the Air Force public information office at Elmendorf said. None of the men was believed to be in serious condition. Twelve of the men were 'walking' cases, according to Air Force officials."
; 27 January: Eleven crew successfully bail out of Lockheed P2V-3 Neptune, BuNo 122983, after it develops engine trouble in a snowstorm, over rugged terrain in north central Arizona. Although they jump over a wide area, the seven crew and four passengers are quickly collected by Navajo County sheriff's officers. The bomber comes down and burns at 1900 hrs. ten miles N of Joseph City, Arizona. The P2V was returning to NAS Hutchinson, Kansas, from NAS Los Alamitos, California, on a cross-country training flight when it developed an engine fire E of Winslow. Pilot Lt. Lawrence W. Hansen, of Chanute, feathered the engine, but while already coping with limited visibility began also to pick up ice. He radioed the Civil Aeronautics Administration that he was turning back. When the second engine began to cut out and the plane began to drop, bail-out was ordered at 7,500 feet, above the snowy countryside. An Air Force B-25 in the area got permission to change course and spotted burning wreckage. Sheriff's deputies were dispatched to the scene. Deputy Jim Faucer said it was "by luck" that the crash occurred only a short distance from a seldom-used road near U.S. 66. The only injury was Arthur M. Lueck, 26, first radioman of the crew who received a broken leg. He is in a hospital at Winslow. "Other crew members were: Lt. Curtis R. Alien, 34, Atlanta, Ga."
;29 January :"HONOLULU UP – The Navy announced that Marine 1st Lt. James Caffey Jr. of Newton Center, Mass., was killed when his AD5N attack bomber crashed and cartwheeled 1,000 feet along the runway at the naval air station on Maui."
;31 January
;1 February : A Boeing B-47 Stratojet out of Portsmouth Air Force Base, New Hampshire, with four crew aboard, crashes in flames into the Atlantic some nine miles off of the fishing port of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Fishermen pick up four life jackets and parts of the plane, but find no survivors. The bomber is reported missing when it fails to return from a routine training flight. Officials at Portsmouth AFB identified three of the crew as Capt. Orrin W. Snyder III, 31; 1st Lt. Stanley D. Jenkins Jr., 28; and Capt. Alexander A. Wawrzyniak.
;1 February :"MOUNTAIN VIEW – An Air Force F84 jet fighter exploded and crashed into a home late yesterday only three blocks from the business section of this San Francisco peninsula community. A woman was rescued from the house. The pilot was killed. The Thunderjet from Luke Field Ariz., bound for Hamilton Air Force Base, was coming in for an emergency landing at nearby Moffett Field, a Navy installation. Luke Field authorities identified the pilot as Capt. Robert Mulvehill, 32, who resided at the air base with his wife. He was on a cross-country training mission. 'I saw the plane coming down from the north,' said W. R. Wollard, Mountain View planning commissioner. 'He was in a pretty steep dive. I thought it was going to pull out but it didn't. There was a big explosion.' The pilot's body was found a block away from the Les Wright residence, which was destroyed. Wright's wife, Opal, 56, jumped out of a window and was pulled to safety before the house went up in flames. Her leg and hip were hurt. The Wright's two children were at high school only 2 blocks away. Flaming fragments of the fighter showered nearby houses, damaging 12 in varying degrees." Republic F-84G-30-RE Thunderjet, 52-3317, of the 3600th Combat Crew Training Wing, was the aircraft destroyed. The pilot was a native of Edinburg, Pennsylvania. "The pilot's body landed in the driveway of 445 Bryant St., the home of Mrs. Ruby Rhett." The jet engine fell into the front yard at 420 Franklin Street, Mountain View.
;2 February :Two Boeing KB-29P Superfortresses of three from the 420th Air Refueling Squadron on a weekend training mission out of RAF Sculthorpe, UK, collide in mid-air over Normandy, France, and crash, killing 13, injuring five, with one missing. The collision, at, occurred in poor visibility when the lead plane lost speed and the second plane, unable to avoid it, plowed into it. Gendarmes said that the wreckage of the two tankers fell to earth about two miles apart near the village of Morigny, 20 miles from St. Lo. The third KB-29 returned safely to base. One of the injured found shelter in a farmhouse after parachuting. One airman who jumped from the flaming wreckage died from burns after reaching the ground. Two of those hospitalized were only slightly hurt and were said to be in no danger. One of the planes carried a crew of ten, the other nine. Three of the victims were M/Sgt. Lawrence M. Grigory, A2C Arthur B. Kosier, and A3C Franklin D. Schweigert.
;2 February :"SAN DIEGO – A Navy F7U Cutlass jet fighter exploded in flight and crashed on the Camp Matthews Rifle Range north of here yesterday, killing the pilot and setting fire to a shed. William Rudolph, a witness, said he saw the plane make several barrel rolls, straighten out and go into a steep glide at 1,000. He said he saw the pilot eject, but didn't see the parachute open. Wreckage from the plane scattered over a wide area of the range, setting several small brush fires." The pilot and F7U-3M were assigned to VA-116 at NAS Miramar, California.
;2 February :USMC 1st Lt. Ray C. Sorensen, is killed when his Grumman F9F Panther smacks the snowy slopes of 10,064-foot Mt. Baldy in the San Gabriel Mountains while on a training mission out of MCAAS Mojave, California. The body of the pilot is found in the wreckage at the 8,000-foot level, near Wrightwood. He is survived by his wife, Susanne, and son, Gregory, 3 months, who live at MCAS El Toro, California.
;2 February :A USAF North American F-86 Sabre crashes into a hangar on landing at Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts, killing pilot Capt. Gordon E. DeGroat, 31, Nutting Lake, Massachusetts. DeGroat had flown from Bunker Hill AFB, Indiana, in a group of three jets. On his initial landing attempt the landing gear failed to lock down and the pilot aborted to let the tower do a visual check. On the second approach, the left wing dipped and the fighter struck an unoccupied hangar. A blaze broke out but was quickly controlled by fire crews. The hangar was not heavily damaged.
;4 February :Two Air Force officers are killed while approaching Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, in a Lockheed T-33. Dead are 1st Lt. James Thomas, 23, the pilot, Tipp City, Ohio, and 1st Lt. Ralph E. Delaney, 23, Los Angeles.
;15 February :Two U.S. Navy fliers are killed when their Douglas AD-5 Skyraider goes out of control and crashes on the desert 12 miles W of Naval Auxiliary Air Station El Centro, California. The victims were identified as pilot Ens. James R. Benson, 22, of College Park, Georgia, and Aviation Electronicsman 3.C Robert A. Rucinski, 20, Rockford, Illinois.
;15 February :Lockheed engineer pilot Joseph "Joe" Watson Ozier, 32, is injured when a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter crashes on landing at United States Air Force Plant 42, Palmdale, California, Lockheed Aircraft spokesmen said the aircraft overturned and caught fire. The accident in JF-104A, 55-2958, c/n 183-1004, proves fatal. Ozier dies late that night from burns and internal injuries.
;15 February :A Chinese Nationalist patrol plane returning from a mission over the Formosa Strait crashes into a row of houses SW of Taipei, Formosa, killing all nine crewmen and injuring ten civilians.
;15 February
;20 February
;21 February :A U.S. Navy McDonnell F3H Demon just misses a high school and crashes into a garage in Hertford, North Carolina, killing a mechanic. The pilot's body is found hours later in a field some distance from the wreckage.
;21 February :A Martin Matador missile has a mind of its own after launch from Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, and heads NW for points unknown with about an hour of fuel on board. Unarmed, it carries test equipment. It also fails to respond to a destruct command.
;22 February :A Douglas C-124 Globemaster II with 159 Americans aboard crashes in the Han River, South Korea. Five were known dead and 20 were unaccounted for. Minutes after departing Kimpo Air Base for Tachikawa Air Base, Japan, the pilot radioed that he had lost his number 3 engine and was returning to Kimpo. Shortly thereafter the transport came down on a sand bar in the broad Han River. The airframe burned. C-124A-DL, 51-0141, c/n 43475, was involved.
;23 February
;28 February :"ENID, Okla. – A twin-engine Air Force C45 plane crashed and burned on takeoff at Vance Air Force Base here early yesterday, killing two men and seriously injuring another. Vance authorities said the plane was based at Shaw AFB near Sumter, S.C. Names of the plane's three occupants were withheld."
;4 March :A USAF Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar crashes at night near Columbia Metropolitan Airport, South Carolina, after losing an engine. All twelve aboard parachute safely.
;5 March
;5 March :A Convair T-29, returning to Mather AFB, California, from Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, crashes and burns near El Morro National Monument, New Mexico, six of eleven on board escaping with minor injuries, others receiving burns.
;7 March :A Boeing B-47 Stratojet explodes and sets fire to another B-47 at Lake Charles AFB, Louisiana. Two men receive burns and both bombers are destroyed.
;8 March :"KANSAS CITY – A Navy jet yesterday carried its pilot to his death, crashing only 50 yards from a home where a grandfather was babysitting with his 5-year-old grandson. The Olathe, Kan., Naval Air Station identified the pilot as 1st Lt. Samuel M. Kenney, 26, U.S. Marine Corps, an instructor at the base. Survivors include his wife, of Olathe, Kan., and his mother, Mrs. Bessie Kenney, 6243 Satsuma St., North Hollywood, Calif."
;14 March
;17 March
;21 March or 22 March
;2 April
;4 April
;17 April
;25 April
;9 May
;9 May
;14 May
;15 May : During the first test flight of the Russian R-7 Semyorka, vehicle M1-5, the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile, from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, a fire in a strap-on rocket leads to a catastrophic failure 90 seconds into the flight and an unintended crash 400 km from the launch site. The accident was caused by a ruptured fuel pipeline.
;21 May
;22 May
;29 May :A Grumman F6F-5K Hellcat drone out of Naval Air Station China Lake, California, breaks contact with both its mother aircraft and the ground and flies nearly north at at. It dived through a dense thundercloud thus preventing two "shoot down" planes from following it. Finally out of fuel, it crashes into a knoll in a wheat field just W of Colfax, Washington, digging a small crater and throwing scattered wreckage about. The drone ended its solo flight about 50 miles S of Spokane after passing over California, Nevada and Oregon. It hit about a quarter of a mile from a farmhouse and burned.
;31 May
;4 June
;7 June
;8 June
;28 June
;11 July
;12 July : After missing a scheduled 11 June launch date due to defective engines in the missile's central section, a Russian R-7 Semyorka, lifts off from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, but loses its in-flight stability in the 33rd second of flight and starts to deviate from its preset trajectory. "This particular malfunction was caused by a short-circuited integrator responsible for the missile’s revolution."
;18 July
;28 July
;8 August
;17 August
;27 August
;31 August: USAF Douglas C-124C Globemaster II, 52-1021, operated by the 1st Strategic Squadron, crashes while on an instrument approach to Biggs Air Force Base in El Paso, Texas, USA, in bad weather after a flight from Hunter AFB near Savannah, Georgia, USA. 5 aircrew are killed, 10 injured.
;4 September
;5 September
;24 September
;26 September
;1 October
;2 October
;9 October
;11 October
;29 October
30 October
;9 November
;15 November
;28 November :Second of three flying prototypes of the ultra long-range, high-altitude single-seat super interceptor Lavochkin La-250, is written off in landing crash, in part due to the restricted view from the cockpit over the very long nose. Third prototype will have its nose dropped by six degrees to improve visibility.
;28 November
;6 December
;12 December
1958
;6 January;14 January
;15 January
;18 January
;19 January
;21 January
;24 January
;24 January
;31 January
;31 January
;1 February
;3 February
;4 February
;5 February
;5 February
;5 February
;6 February
;7 February
;8 February
;8 February
;11 February
;12 February : In the third accident for the unit in nine days, pilot Lt. Joseph O. Sweeney, 24, of Orleans Road, St. Andrews Parish, Charleston, South Carolina, is killed in the 1404 hours takeoff crash of a North American F-86L Sabre of the 444th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron ~two miles off the end of the main instrument runway at Charleston Air Force Base, South Carolina, the plane coming down in a wooded area in the vicinity of Midland Park Road and exploding on impact. He had taken off on a practice intercept mission. Base spokesmen on 13 February said that Lt. Sweeney's fighter was fully loaded with rockets but that none exploded and all were accounted for by that morning. "Squadron spokesmen today said the cause of the plane's trouble was materiel failure due to fire. The plane's engine was reported to have sputtered and caught fire immediately after lifting from the end of the runway. The crash occurred on civilian-owned property near the Midland Park Road."
;15 February
;17 February
;18 February
;20 February
;20 February
;25 February
;25 February
;26 February
;27 February
;4 March
;4 March
;7 March
;11 March
;13 March
;18 March
;21 March
;27 March
;10 April
;10 April
;13 April
;14 April
;15 April
;16 April
;21 April
;Circa early May
;5 May
;8 May
;9 May
;20 May
;23 May
;25 May
;5 June
;13 June
;27 June
;4 July
;8 July
;9 July
;21 July
;26 July:United States Air Force test-pilot Iven Carl Kincheloe, Jr. is killed in unsuccessful ejection attempt after the engine of his Lockheed F-104A-15-LO Starfighter, 56-0772, fails during takeoff at Edwards Air Force Base, California, United States. While flying a Bell X-2, Kincheloe became the first man to exceed 100,000 ft of altitude, and he is often credited as the first man to enter outer space. Kinross Air Force Base, Michigan renamed Kincheloe Air Force Base in September 1959.
;End of July
;6 August
;8 September
;8 September :Third of three flying prototypes of the ultra long-range, high-altitude single-seat super interceptor Lavochkin La-250, is written off in landing crash, despite having its nose dropped by six degrees to improve visibility. This final design from the Lavochkin bureau will be cancelled without entering service and before all testing is completed. Radar and missile armament never fitted to airframe.
;16 September
;19 September
;20 September
;24 September
;25 September
;25 September
;10 October
;15 October
;18 October
;22 October
;24 October
;26 October
;4 November
;13 November
;21 November
;26 November
;30 November
;9 December:
;9 December
;16 December
1959
;1959;4 January
;9 January
;14 January
;22 January
;22 January
;26 January
;3 February
;4 February
;11 February
;22 February
;8 April
;May
;6 May
;14 May
;20 May
;31 May :A U.S. Marine Corps aviator, flying into NAS Glenview, Illinois, from MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina, was killed when his Douglas AD Skyraider crashed into an adjacent cemetery after two missed approaches in conditions of zero ceiling and visibility of only three-sixteenths of a mile. Lt. William P. Byrne, 25, originally of Cleveland, was being directed by the tower on a guided control approach system on the north-south runway but was waved off twice for being too low. After the second missed approach, his aircraft veered right, hit a row of trees along Shermer Road west of the airfield, sheared off part of the porch of the home of Richard Wood, 1990 Old Willow Road, and impacted in Sunset Memorial Park. "Wheels and parts of the plane's fuselage were ripped off as it struck a huge gravestone. The remainder of the plane plowed onward for 500 feet, leveling gravestones and uprooting trees. Lt. Byrne's body was found lying near the wreckage." Lt. Byrne was graduated from Notre Dame University in 1955, and had been in the Marine Air Corps since then. He is survived by his wife, Margaret, and his daughter, Kathy, 18 months, who were staying with Mrs. Byrne's parents, Mr. and Mrs. William P. Burke, at 5904 N. Kolmar Avenue, whom the pilot was coming to visit. Byrne's widow, Jane, will eventually become Mayor of Chicago.
;3 June
;3 June
;23 June
;30 June
;July
;6 July
;6 July
;21 July
;26 July
;29 July
;1 August
;10 August
;14 August
;16 September
;24 September
;25 September
;1 October
;8 October
;15 October
;27 October
;5 November
;10 November
;2 December
;4 December
;14 December
;21 December