List of accidents and incidents involving military aircraft (1943–1944)
This is a list of 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. For more exhaustive lists, see the Aircraft Crash Record Office or the Air Safety Network or the Dutch Scramble Website Brush and Dustpan Database. 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 callsign in italics, and operating units.1943
;January : "Aviation Cadet Henry A. McGinnis, East Falls Church, Va., crashed within a block of his own home recently while on a routine training flight from the Naval Air Base at Anacostia. He was taken to the Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, Maryland, where his condition was reported not serious.";1 January
;3 January
;6 January
;6 January
;13 January
;15 January
;21 January : Pan Am Flight 1104, a Martin M-130, the Philippine Clipper, being operated by Pan American Airways for the U.S. Navy, en route from Honolulu to San Francisco, crashes in northern California, in bad weather and poor visibility, killing 19, including 10 Navy passengers. ComSubPac Admiral Robert H. English is killed.
;29 January :A Douglas B-23 Dragon, 39-052, c/n 2738, of the 390th Bomb Squadron, 42d Bomb Group, assigned at McChord Field, Washington, piloted by Lt. Robert Orr, attempts ferry flight from Tonopah, Nevada, back to McChord Field, with eight aboard, but runs into a snowstorm and has to divert to Gowen Field, Boise, Idaho. Unable to locate another landing field and running low on fuel, pilot spots a clearing which is actually frozen Loon Lake in the Payette National Forest, Stevens County, Washington, and attempts landing, with one engine afire, but overshoots and shears wings as it crashes into a grove of trees on the shore. Only two of eight suffer injuries; wreckage sighted 13 February by veteran civilian pilot Penn Stohr, flying his own private plane from Cascade to Warren, who reports to Gowen Field seeing three men, apparently in uniform, standing around the downed fuselage. His attention was drawn by a string of trees along the south shore with their tops sheared off. Five airmen who remained with the aircraft are rescued by Stohr who twice landed his ski-equipped plane on the lake. Three others who left the crash site to seek help reach the Lake Fork ranger station unaided on 16 February, and telephone Gowen Field. The station is 12 miles E of McCall, and 15 miles SW of Loon Lake. Wreckage is largely still where it came to rest.
;5 February
;5 February: A Douglas C-49K, piloted by Anthony R. Mensing, en route from Fort Nelson, British Columbia, Canada, to Seattle, Washington, crashed 76 miles SW of Fort Nelson at the 8,500 foot level of Mount Mary Henry, killing all eleven on board. The wreckage was discovered by a party of hunters in 1948. The remains were removed in September 1948 by pack horse and seaplane "from the almost inaccessible peak where the plane crashed," to Tuchodi Lake, 20 miles away. There they were loaded aboard a Canadian air force plane to bring them to Fort Nelson. "Removal of the skeletons and the investigation of the wreckage are under the direction of Maj. Max E. Van Bethuysen of the United States air force, aided by Squadron Leader Maxwell Strange of the Canadian air force and Constable William Bolton of British Columbia. Major Van Bethuysen said no trace of gold bullion or currency has been found amid the wreckage. Debris is scattered over a square mile of the mountainside above the timberline, however, and some of it is buried under 9 feet of rock which has fallen from the cliffs rising approximately 1,000 feet above the site. Early rumors that the ill-fated C-49, which crashed Feb. 5, 1943,... carried nearly half a million dollars in gold and currency, previously were denied by the air force in Washington. However, the searchers found moldy war department documents in United States mail sacks which also contained envelopes addressed to the United States treasury and hundreds of letters from servicemen in Alaska and the Aleutians to their relatives and friends at home. A rubber oxygen mask that had survived the elements still was on the pilot's skull. The investigators said that some scraps of metal from the plane were fused, indicating part of the wreckage had burned. The wide scattering of the debris was taken to indicate that the plane had either had struck the peak with terrific impact, or that it exploded in midair."
;8 February
;9 February :"San Francisco, February 9, – A two-motored navy bomber from the Alameda naval air station crashed into San Francisco bay and exploded, killing all five members of the crew. The 12th naval district said the ship, on a test flight, had radioed that one engine was failing and that she was returning to base. Just as the plane was ready to come in for a landing, it was seen to dive abruptly into the bay a few hundred feet offshore from the naval station. An explosion shattered the ship as it struck the water, and a few minutes later the crew of a crash barge from the air station was able to find only scattered wreckage on the water."
;11 February :The Boeing B-17F-50-BO Flying Fortress, 42-5367, of the 317th Bomb Squadron, 88th Bomb Group, with ten aboard goes missing on flight from Walla Walla Army Air Base, Washington. Civil Air Patrol planes spot the wreckage on 14 February in the Blue Mountains, 17 miles E of Walla Walla, where the bomber apparently flew head-on into a ridge at about the 5,000 foot level. Ground parties reach the site on 16 February and confirm the crew dead.
;12 February : Eight of nine crew are killed aboard Consolidated B-24D-35-CO Liberator, 42-40144, c/n 1221, of the 528th Bomb Squadron, 380th Bomb Group, Biggs Field, Texas, piloted by Charles C. Wylie, when it suffers engine failure that results in a stall/spin condition, coming down eight miles NW of Roswell, New Mexico, according to a crash report, and five miles N of Roswell according to the Associated Press. One crewman successfully parachuted to safety.
;Mid-February
;17 February
;18 February
;22 February
;10 March :North American B-25C Mitchell, 41-12740, of the 473d Bombardment Squadron, 334th Bombardment Group, en route from Greenville Army Air Base, South Carolina, to Key Field, Meridian, Mississippi, crashed into the Blue Ridge Mountains ~21 miles N of Walhalla in Pickens County, South Carolina, at about midnight, killing all five crew "apparently instantaneously." The aircraft was assigned at Greenville AAB. Despite a large-scale search by army aircraft along the route from Greenville to Meridian, the wreckage was finally found 21 March 1943 by a 15-year-old mountain boy, Seab Crane, who was riding a horse along a remote path known as the Moody trail. The bomber had clipped off treetops at the peak of a mountain, just off Turnpike road about 2 1/2 miles from the Walhalla State Fish Hatchery, and plunged into a ravine. The altitude where the plane first struck is more than 2,000 feet. Heavy recent rains kept the crash fire isolated to the actual wreckage. One of the motors and the gasoline tank had burned, but only a few square yards of woods had burned. "After Rogers and Crane had found the wrecked ship they reported it to R. A. Stewart at the Fish Hatchery, an aircraft warning service spotter. Stewart put in a 'red flash' call to the filter center in Columbia and immediately afterwards notified Derrill B. Darby, of Walhalla, chief of the aircraft warning service in Oconee county. That was shortly before 1 o'clock Monday afternoon." After the wreckage had been viewed, home guardsmen took charge and kept watch until army men from the Greenville air base arrived. The victims were: Flight Officer Richard S. Brook, 22, pilot, of 10 Superior Court, Lima, Ohio; Second Lieutenant Earl S. Monroe, 26, co-pilot, of Bolivar, New York; Second Lieutenant Philip J. Graziano, 23, navigator, of 166 Chestnut Street, Lawrence, Massachusetts; Staff Sergeant Harvey M. Capellman, engineer, of Blanchard, Idaho; and Sergeant Michael Sekel, 29, radio operator, of Buffalo, Ohio. "Soldiers, home guardsmen, and volunteers labored into the night to remove the bodies and carry them on stretchers up the steep mountain side to the ambulance. Salvage of the wrecked ship was started on Tuesday." A later report stated that the B-25 was en route TO Greenville Army Air Base from Meridian, Mississippi. A memorial marker to the crew was dedicated at the site on 21 March 2014 by the Walhalla American Legion and the Oconee Veterans Council.
;18 March :A Douglas SBD-4 Dauntless hits the rail of the control tower and smashes into the ground at MCAAS Mojave, California, demolishing the airframe. "The flat-hatting pilot was taken to the hospital with 'multiple, extreme injuries.' Incredibly, the mechanic riding as a passenger walked away with only minor cuts and bruises."
;23 March
;23 March
;4 April
;9 April
;13 April :Martin B-26B-2 Marauder, 41-17945, of the 480th Bomb Squadron (Medium), 336th Bomb Group (Medium), Avon Park Army Air Field, Florida, while on a training flight crashes and is destroyed by fire at Daniel Army Air Field, Augusta, Georgia. All seven crew are killed. The base public relations office at Avon Park identified the victims as 1st Lt. Robert L. Floyd, McLean, Texas, pilot; 2d Lt. Richard C. Larsen, Rochester, Minnesota; S/Sgt. Carl Justh, York Haven, Pennsylvania; Sgt. Charles S. Elder, Banning, California; Sgt. Lewis F. Haimi, Palmerton, Pennsylvania; Cpl. Woodrow O. Rosell, San Antonio, Texas; and Pvt. James S. Nelson, Seattle, Washington.
;14 April :The crash of Curtiss O-52 Owl, 40-2780, c/n 14313, of the 392d Observation Training Squadron, Brooks Field, Texas, when it spins in a short distance from that base, kills 2d Lt. Robert E. Kuhn, 23, Chicago, pilot, and 2d Lt. Robert O. Fechtner, 21, Boling, Texas, observer.
;14 April
;18 April: Messerschmitt Me 262 V2, WrkNr. 262 000 002, PC+UB, is completely destroyed on a test flight out of Lechfeld, its 48th flight, this date, killing pilot Ofw. Wilhelm Ostertag, after being airborne only seven minutes. "It was thought that the cause was in part due to a disturbance in the tail plane adjustment, but a later investigation found that a section of a rear part of one of the engines had detached and blocked the engine, forcing the aircraft into an uncontrollable downward spiral." Airframe flight time was 18 hours 17 minutes.
;29 April
;3 May
;6 May
;Circa 7 May
;8 May
;10 May
;10 May
;16 May: Handley Page Halifax B Mk V bomber suffered starboard inner engine failure shortly after takeoff from RAF Holmsley South en route to RAF Hurn. Crashed in Thatcher's Lane, Sopley, at grid reference OS SZ164986. All on board were killed. The names of those that died are: Donald J Smith, M.W. Collins, Barrie Noel Stephenson, P.S. Thomas, Frances Joseph Davies, Roland Davies Sunter and Ronald Herbert Borton.
;19 May :The RAF Hudson crash was an aerial accident that killed two people. The aircraft crashed in a forced landing attempt near RAF St Eval, Cornwall, England, following engine failure. Lockheed Hudson IIIA, FH168, a lend-lease A-29-LO, 41-36969, c/n 414-6458, operated by No. 38 Wing RAF, based at RAF Netheravon, crashed and burned south of St. Eval. The aircraft was unable to maintain height due to one engine failing, and the load it was carrying. Air Commodore Sir Nigel Norman, en route to the Middle East for an Airborne Forces Planning Conference, died in this accident.
;19 May
;20 May: A Consolidated B-24E-5-FO Liberator, 42-7053, c/n 77, of the 1014th Pilot Transition Training Squadron, Tarrant Army Airfield, Texas, hit the side of a 20 million cubic foot gasometer of the People's Gas Light and Coke Company at 3625 73rd Street and Central Park Avenue, the largest of its type in the world, ~2 miles SE of Municipal Airport, killing all 12 crew. Joe Baugher cites date as 5 May 1943, but this is incorrect. Approaching the airport from the southwest in light rain, light fog and light smoke, with a 500 foot ceiling and ~.75 miles visibility, the bomber circled the field to the north and east before striking the ~500 foot tall tank at the ~125 foot level whilst on a southern heading, initially with the port wingtip, according to witness Lawrence Kinsella, an employee of People's Gas Light and Coke Company. Much of forward fuselage fell inside the tank structure which exploded, throwing steel plate over 100 yards with heat felt over a mile away. Nine employees were on the grounds but none were injured. The storage tank was erected in 1928 at a cost of $2 million, according to a Chicago Daily Tribune account. It was not rebuilt.
;28 May :The loss of US Navy Curtiss SB2C-1 Helldiver, BuNo 00154, of VB-5, during launch near Trinidad on 28 May 1943 during the shakedown cruise of the was incorporated by 20th Century Fox into the 1944 film Wing and a Prayer: The Story of Carrier X.
;30 May :Boeing B-17F-45-BO Flying Fortress, 42-5318, of the 464th Bombardment Squadron, 331st Bombardment Group, out of Casper Army Air Field, Wyoming, piloted by James O. Westbury, after departing Marysville Army Airfield crashes into a mountainside 15 miles NE of Covelo, California while on a training flight to Eugene, Oregon, killing all six people on board. The wreckage of the missing plane finally discovered on the weekend of 7–8 August 1943. Badly burned bodies could not be immediately identified.
;June
;2 June
;3 June
;4 June
;13 June
;14 June
;16 June
;1 July
;3 July:Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Mk.V, LA877, 'ZV-W', of No.19 Operational Training Unit, out of Forres, on the Moray coast, a satellite of RAF Kinloss crashes on Meallan Odhar near Loch Pattack. Fire in the port wing caused structural failure, the wing coming down a half mile from the main wreckage. "At the request of the investigating officer the port engine was excavated from the crash site and sent to Rolls-Royce who examined it. They said that there been a failure of one of the pistons with hot gases passing beyond the piston rings of that piston which caused the gudgeon pin to fail and the connecting rod to break away which then broke through the crank case. This allowed a fuel/air mixture as well as engine oil to escape under pressure into the nacelle where it ignited and in less than one minute caused the failure of the forward wing spar and lower skin of the port wing." Five crew killed. They were: Sgt. Dennys Cyril Hunt, pilot; Sgt. Edwin Albert Deacon, navigator; Flt. Sgt. Donald James Gillies RCAF, bomb aimer; Sgt. Robert Norman Cowie, wireless operator / air gunner; and Sgt. Keith Pratt Gemmel, RCAF, air gunner.
;4 July
;4 July
;21 July :Captain Roberto Roque and his mechanic Fernando Cubas, of the Cuban Army Aviation Corps, suffer a fatal crash in Vultee BT-13, 72, when they come out of a dive and strike a huge tree at Güines.
;31 July
;31 July :A Consolidated B-24E-20-CF Liberator, 41-29052, c/n 44, of the 579th Bombardment Squadron, 392d Bombardment Group, operating out of Topeka Army Air Base, en route to Duluth, Minnesota, on a navigation training flight, crashed 10 miles SW of Boone, after losing part of starboard wing in a thunderstorm.
;1 August
;1 August
;2 August :"Phoenix, Arizona, August 2 – Second Lt. Arthur C. Collins, 22, and Aviation Cadet Wayne B. Bowers, 22, were killed today when their twin engine training plane crashed 10 miles west of Chandler, Ariz." They went down in [Lockheed Lockheed P-38 Lightning|P-38 Lightning|Lockheed RP-322 Lightning], AF162, of the 535th Twin Engine Flying Training Squadron, Williams Field, Arizona. One source gives the accident date as 1 August, and gives the location as eight miles W of Chandler. P-322s were non-turbocharged Lightning Is, originally ordered by France, the order being taken over by the Royal Air Force, but only three were actually retained by Great Britain, the rest being used as trainers by the U.S. Army Air Force.
;2 August
;4 August
;5 August :Lockheed B-34, 41-38116, that collided with American Airlines Flight 28 on 23 October 1942, was repaired and re-designated as an RB-34A-4 target tug. On 5 August 1943, this same aircraft suffered starboard engine failure during a ferry flight and crashed into Wolf Hill, a mile W of Farnum Pike, near Smithfield, Rhode Island, killing all three crew members. "The pilot having insufficient altitude to recover properly, crashed on a wooded hill," states the accident investigation report, issued 19 August 1943. Killed are 2d Lt. Otis R. Portewig, 27, Richmond, Virginia, pilot, of the 1st Towing Squadron, Otis Field, Massachusetts; T/Sgt. Herbert D. Booth, 21, Rahway, New Jersey, crew chief. also of the 1st Towing Squadron; and 2d Lt. Saul Winsten, 25, Pawtucket, Rhode Island, of the 901st Quartermaster Company, Aviation Service, Otis Field, passenger.
;5 August :"Las Vegas, Nev., Aug. 6, – Four fliers attached to the Las Vegas Army Air field were killed yesterday as their plane crashed eight miles northwest of here, base officials announced. The plane, a navigator trainer, was on a routine flight when it went into a spin from 3,000 feet. It burst into flames as it struck the ground." Lockheed AT-18A-LO Hudson, 42-55494, c/n 414-7216, of the 50th Flexible Gunnery Training Squadron, Las Vegas Army Airfield, piloted by Avalon L. Finlayson, was destroyed. The Aviation Archaelological Investigation and Research website lists the crash location as 10 miles WSW of the air base.
;8 August or 11 August: Future ETO double ace Captain Walker Melville "Bud" Mahurin gets off to an ignominious start this date when, "On a training mission over England he had spotted a B-24 Liberator – at the time not a particularly common aeroplane in English skies. While flying formation with the bomber he took his Thunderbolt a little too close resulting in the empennage being slashed off by the Liberator's propellers. Mahurin came down by parachute, his P-47 disintegrated in an English field and the Liberator made a successful landing having sustained only minor damage. Thunderbolts, costing $104,258 each, were still in short supply and Mahurin's folly did not endear him to the authorities." The P-47C-5-RE, of the 63d Fighter Squadron, 56th Fighter Group, impacted ~one mile NW of Metfield, Suffolk. Mahurin will somewhat redeem himself on 17 August 1943 when he downs two Focke-Wulf Fw 190s. The 11 August date may be the date that the airframe was officially written off.
;8 August :"WENDOVER, Utah, Aug. 9 – Crashing in the night on western Utah's dreary salt desert, a four-engined Army bomber killed one flier and caused the wreck of a freight train leaving 26 boxcars stacked up like splintered toys on the Western Pacific railroad's main line today." Consolidated RB-24E Liberator, 42-7159, c/n 183, built as a B-24E-15-FO, and redesignated in the Restricted category, of the 605th Bomb Squadron, 399th Bomb Group, Wendover Field, piloted by Herbert Williams, Jr., experienced engine failure and "smashed down on highway U.S. 40-50, slithered at terrific speed across the salt crust before hitting the rails and winding up 100 feet on the opposite side. The westbound freight, powered by a double Diesel locomotive, roared along 10 to 15 minutes later and plowed into scattered wreckage and a spread rail. The engine stuck to the rails, three freight cars were derailed but stayed intact, then 26 more crashed together in a dizzy pyramid of destruction. Second Lt. Richard L. Blue of Rantoul, Ill., the plane's co-pilot, died today at the hospital at Wendover field, where the plane was based. Ten other fliers were dragged injured from the wreckage and some were critical. One rail official estimated damage to train and freight at $200,000." The train engineer, Otto Kelly, of Salt Lake City, said that the crew was unaware of the bomber's crash until after the derailment, which occurred as the last set of trucks of the motive power passed over wreckage on the right-of-way. Some 200 feet of railroad was torn up in the accident, which occurred seven miles E of Wendover. "The fliers crawled from the battered bomber and were aided by the trainmen." The bomber did not burn. The locomotives powering the freight were an EMD FTA-FTB semi-permanently coupled pair.
;8 August :"Spokane, Wash., Aug. 8 – Second Lt. George F. Morris, 28, of San Pedro, California, was killed instantly when the small observation plane he was flying crashed at the seven-mile gunnery range, Geiger field officers announced today."
;10 August :"Pearl Harbor, Aug. 10, – A Navy bomber crashed in the Pearl Harbor Navy yard during maneuvers today, killing three of its crew and injuring 17 persons, among them four civilian employes." The aircraft struck a loaded bus and eight civilians died, in addition to the three plane crew.
;13 August :Naval Auxiliary Air Facility Lompoc, California, is commissioned as a blimp base on 8 August 1943. Five days later, as ground crews manoeuver ship K-29 in the damp, foggy morning for launch from Circle #2, the blimp's tail pendants approach a high-voltage power line and 11,000 volts arcs through the ship. Four men holding the metal handling bars on the control car are electrocuted and a fifth is seriously burned. The power company was supposed to have moved this hazard but had not. These were the only fatalities at the Lompoc facility during both civilian and military use.
;14 August
;16 August
;18 August
;23 August :"Madison, Wis., Aug. 24 – Lt. Harold Nicholson, 25 years old, son of Mr. and Mrs. Jens Nicholson of Madison, was killed last night in a plane crash near Oroville, Cal., the parents were informed today by the war department." Harold J. Nicholson was killed in the crash of Bell P-39Q-1-BE Airacobra, 42-19593, of the 363d Fighter Squadron, 357th Fighter Group, two miles N of Oroville Army Air Field.
;29 August :The Thirteenth Naval District public relations office confirms on 4 September the probable death of five Navy men from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington, whose aircraft went missing on 29 August. Lockheed PV-1 Ventura, BuNo 34637, of VB-146, crashed on Mount Baker, Washington, but wreckage only discovered by a hiker in October 1997. There were actually six crew on board, all fatal.
;31 August :Boeing B-17F-50-BO Flying Fortress, 42-5451, of the 582d Bomb Squadron, 393d Bomb Group, piloted by James A. McRaven, crashed two miles NE of Kearney Army Air Field, Nebraska, during a routine training flight, killing all eight crew. Among the dead were Leonard Supulski, 23, former football player for the Philadelphia Eagles. The 393d was reassigned to Kearney AAF from Sioux City AAB, Iowa, this date.
; 1 September :"Great Falls, Mont., Sept. 2. – Ten crew members of a four-engined bomber from the Great Falls army air base, killed early today when the ship crashed five miles east of Fort Benton, were identified tonight by Capt. John R. Lloyd, base public relations officer, as follows: Sergeant Robert H. Hall, Coldwater, Mich.; Sergeant John T. Huff, Cherokee, Kan.; Sergeant Carl E. Lower, Van Wert, Ohio; Sergeant Chester W. Peko, Throop, Pa.; Private First Class Paul Peterson, Colfax, Wis.; Sergeant Curio C. Thrementi, Vassar, Mich.; Lieutenant Harold L. Wonders, Waterloo, Iowa; Lieutenant Warren H. Maginn, Glendale, Los Angeles; Lieutenant Jack Y. Fisk, Los Angeles, and Lieutenant Arnold J. Gardiner, New York. The crash occurred during a routine training flight." Boeing B-17F-35-BO Flying Fortress, 42-5128, of the 612th Bomb Squadron, 401st Bomb Group, was flown by Lt. Maginn.
;2 September :"Sioux City, Iowa, Sept. 3. – All 10 crew members of an army bomber from the Sioux City air base were killed when their plane crashed five miles from the base last night while on a routine training flight. The dead included Second Lieutenant Earl G. Adkinson, Portland, Ore., and Sergeant Robert Hunter, Eufaula, Okla." Consolidated B-24E-25-FO Liberator, 42-7237, c/n 261, of the 703d Bomb Squadron, 445th Bomb Group, flown by Lt. "Atkinson", according to the crash report, crashed one mile E of the base.
;2 September : Boeing B-17F-40-VE Flying Fortress, 42-5977, of the 540th Bomb Squadron (Heavy), 383d Bomb Group (Heavy), Geiger Field, Washington, on a routine local flight with three aboard, piloted by Robert P. Ferguson, clips the tops of trees for several blocks, crashes into scrub pines two miles S of Geiger Field and burns. Only three were on the bomber, said a report by Lt. R. E. Reed, public relations officer at the field. Names were withheld pending notification of next of kin.
;3 September:A U.S. Navy ensign is killed when his plane dives into a peat bog near Redmond, Washington, this date, the Thirteenth Naval District public relations office confirms on 4 September.
;4 September :All eight crew of Consolidated B-24E-25-CF Liberator, 41-29071, of the 701st Bomb Squadron, 445th Bomb Group, Sioux City Army Air Base, Iowa, piloted by Jack D. Hodges, are killed when the bomber crashes in a corn field four miles SW of Moville, Iowa.
;4 September
;5 September
;9 September
;9 September
;11 September :North American B-25G Mitchell, misreported as 41-13240, a serial belonging to a Curtiss P-40C, of the 472d Bomb Squadron, 334th Bomb Group, Greenville Army Air Base, South Carolina, piloted by Eugene E. Stocking, collides four miles NW of Spartanburg, South Carolina, with B-25G-5 42-65013, of the same units, flown by Solon E. Ellis. 65013 crashes, killing five crew, while the unidentified Mitchell lands safely.
; 11 September :The prototype Airborne and General MC-1, NX21757, prototype of the XCG-16, begins tests at March Field, California, but on the second flight, inadequately secured ballast comes loose when the glider flies through the Lockheed C-60 glider tug's propwash, causing a catastrophic rearward shift in the centre of gravity. The uncontrollable MC-1A releases from tow and enters a flat spin at, from which it does not recover, and crashes in a plowed field. Three of the crew and passengers bail out but only two survive the parachute jump. Paul G. Wells and Harry M. Pearl descend safely, but the parachute of Richard Chichester du Pont, 37, who won the national soaring championship five years in a row, serving as special assistant to Gen. Henry "Hap" Arnold, does not open in time and he is killed. Also killed in the wreck are Col. P. Ernest Gabel, another glider specialist, deputy director of the Army Air Forces glider program, on the staff of the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Washington, D.C., C. C. Chandler, Tarzana, California, test pilot and thrice soaring champion, and test pilot Howard L. Morrison, San Fernando, California.
;12 September :A U.S. Navy Grumman F4F Wildcat flown by Lieutenant John Lewis Morelle, USNR, 24, of Georgetown, Texas, strikes a suspension cable of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. The wings and tail were sheared off and the plane fell burning into the bay 200 feet below. The pilot's body is not recovered. Portions of the wings and tail assembly rained down onto the roadway but no civilian was injured despite many vehicles on the span at the time. Six of seven strands of one suspension cable were snapped, but the safety of the bridge was not endangered. This was the first time a plane hit the span since its 12 November 1936 opening.
;26 September
;29 September : A Douglas C-53D-DO Skytrooper, 42-68788, of the 93d Troop Carrier Squadron, 439th Troop Carrier Group, departs Alliance Army Airfield, Alliance, Nebraska, on a night training mission to practice communication with the Scottsbluff Radio Range, but crashes three miles S of the base for unknown reasons shortly thereafter, killing both crew. Heavy fog hindered the search from the air, however, a rancher found the wreckage while checking his stock. KWF were 2d Lt. William Cardie, pilot, of Plainfield, New Jersey, and 2d Lt. Robert G. Bartels, co-pilot, of Blasdell, New York. The left wing had struck the ground.
;2 October
;8 October
;20 October
;24 October : Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, of VB-8, coded '8-B-24', suffers major damage in a barrier crash aboard USS Intrepid during shakedown cruise in the Caribbean, engine breaking loose from mounts and dropping down towards the deck adjacent to the island.
;25 October :Four Consolidated B-24H Liberators of the 724th Bomb Squadron (Heavy), 451st Bomb Group (Heavy), from Fairmont Army Air Field, Nebraska, were flying in a diamond formation. At 1600 hrs. CWT, one bomber broke formation and the pilot of a second, as trained, moved toward the vacated position. When the first bomber returned to its position, the two planes collided. At an altitude of 20,000 feet, this was the highest fatal World War II training accident in Nebraska. One bomber crashed in the adjoining farm fields of Frank Hromadka Sr. and Anna Matejka, 2 miles N and ½ mile E of Milligan, Nebraska. The other crashed in the farmyard of Mike and Fred Stech, 3 miles N and 2 miles E of Milligan. Killed were 2d Lt. James H. Williams, 2d Lt. William E. Herzog, 2d Lt. Kenneth S. Ordway, 2d Lt. Charles L. Brown, 2d Lt. Clyde H. Frye, Sgt. James H. Bobbitt, Sgt. William D. Watkins, Sgt. William G. Williams, Sgt. Wilbur H. Chamberlin, Sgt. Edward O. Boucher, Sgt. Ursulo Galindo Jr., Sgt. William C. Wilson, Sgt. Albert R. Mogavero, Sgt. Arthur O. Doria, Sgt. Eugene A. Hubbell, F/O Achille P. Augelli, and Pfc. Andrew G. Bivona. All eight crew died aboard B-24H-1-FO, 42-7657, piloted by 2d Lt. Brown, while the sole survivor of ten on B-24H-1-FO, 42-7673, flown by 2d Lt. Williams, was 2d Lt. Melvin Klein, who was thrown free of the wreckage and managed to deploy his parachute. A Nebraska historical marker was erected about the accident in 2010 by the Milligan Memorial Committee for the World War II Fatal Air Crashes near Milligan, Nebraska.
;30 October : U.S. Navy Goodyear ZNP-K airship K-94, BuNo 33486, probably assigned at Naval Air Station Richmond, Florida, on a ferry trip from Guantanamo, Cuba, to San Juan, Puerto Rico, is lost. After the 13th hourly position report at 2200, nothing more is heard from the flight and it disappears abruptly from the shore radar-tracking screen. Eyewitnesses on surface craft report seeing a small flaming object similar to a flare dropping from the airship. Almost immediately afterward, a bright colored flame was noticed, increasing in size until the entire airship was engulfed in flames on its descent into the Caribbean Sea. Eight crew lost. A B-25G-10 Mitchell, 42-65118, of the 417th Bomb Squadron, 25th Bomb Group, piloted by Jaspar J. Kraynick, searching for survivors of K-94, also disappears ~3.5 hours later at approximately the same position, 15 miles NW of Borinquen Field.
;8 November
;10 November
;10 November : U.S. Navy Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat, BuNo 25974, '30', of VF-2, on a routine training exercise off of USS Enterprise en route to Makin Atoll, piloted by Ensign Byron Milton Johnson of Potter, Nebraska, suffers engine problems, makes emergency landing, catches 3 wire on his third attempt, slams into deck and ends up with port landing gear leg in the port catwalk near 20 mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns. Airframe rests on belly tank, which begins to leak, propeller blades turning against deck edge emit sparks which set fuel alight. Hard landing jams canopy, retaining pin sheared. One of the Pacific war's iconic images is caught as Lieutenant Walter Lewis Chewning of Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, Enterprise new catapult officer, rescues Johnson, stepping on the burning tank to reach the cockpit. While waiting for '30' to be cleared from the deck, Ensign S. S. Osbourne in F6F-3, BuNo 25985, has to ditch. USS Brown picks Osbourne up. Both Hellcats written off. "Chewning was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his actions. The commander of VF-2's Air Group, famed fighter pilot Edward "Butch" O'Hare recommended that night that all pilots drop their external tank before landing to prevent such an accident repeating."
;15 November
;21 November
On 21 November 1943, a Douglas C-47 aircraft crashed into Locust Mountain in Mahanoy Township, Pennsylvania. Seven of the occupants on board the aircraft were killed, and two survived with serious injuries.
On the night of 21 November 1943, three Douglas C-47A aircraft took off from Lawson Field in Fort Benning, Georgia. They were heading to Naval Air Station Willow Grove in Horsham Township, Pennsylvania, to pick up CG-4A gliders and tow them to Maxton AAF. At the time, Maxton was the site of the largest CG-4A glider pilot training base in the world.
In the airspace around Washington, DC the three aircraft entered a large storm front and lost visual contact with one another. Captain Bernard Cederholm, the pilot of 42-32929, decided to divert to the now-abandoned Barnsville Auxiliary Airfield near Allentown, Pennsylvania. Due to weather circumstances and low visibility, Cederholm failed to locate the airfield. He was following a holding circuit when the aircraft hit trees on Locust Mountain, located approximately an eighth of a mile west of Tamaqua, Pennsylvania at 2110 EST, and broke up. A fire broke out on impact, and seven of the nine aboard were killed. The two survivors left were Corporal Joseph W. Enloe and Private Charles H. Davis, who were found wandering around the site of the crash a half hour afterwards. The force of the crash was so powerful that it is reported that the tail was thrown approximately 1,500 feet away from the impact site.
The aircraft, a Douglas C-47A with the tail number 42-32929 was first flown in 1943.
In total, seven of the nine occupants onboard 42-32929 were killed in the resulting crash:
The cause of the crash was never fully determined, although it is believed to be a case of CFIT.
;22 November
;Night of 23–24 November
;6 December
;7 December
;9 December :Boeing B-17G-20-BO Flying Fortress, 42-31468, "The Galley Uncle", force landed during ferry flight from Gander in a field adjacent to Graan Monastery, near Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. One crew died and five were saved by local monks.
;22 December
;29 December
;30 December
;Post-December
1944
;January;2 January : "HORNICK, Iowa, Jan. 2. —Nine crew members of a Flying Fortress based at Sioux City, were killed when the plane crashed and burned on a farm near here late today. Persons within a radius of several miles said they saw the plane explode and crash." B-17F-40-VE, 42-6013, of the 393d CCTS, piloted by Frank R. Hilford, appears to be the airframe involved.
;2 January :"Sacramento, Calif., Jan. 2 – Thirteen army flyers were killed today when a B-17 Flying Fortress, headed for Los Angeles from McChord field, Tacoma, Wash., exploded in flight over McClellan field and plunged 3000 feet to the ground in flames. Thousands of Sacramentans, startled by a terrific explosion, looked skyward and saw the crippled and burning four-motored bomber emerge from the overcast sky and fall. Only one member of the plane's crew of 14 escaped the flaming wreckage, parachuting to safety before the crash. He was Maj. James H. Wergen of Kingman field, Ariz., the bomber's home base. The plane went to pieces in the air as it fell, scattering a wingtip, one of its motors and other parts over a vast area. McClellan field authorities said medical officers were attempting to identify the dead, but that names would be withheld pending notification of next of kin." The B-17G was piloted by Frederick M. Klopfenstein.
;3 January :The crash of Cessna AT-17B Bobcat, 42-38897, c/n 3106, of the 986th SEFTS, Douglas Army Airfield, Arizona, kills Aviation Cadets Loris Gale, 20, of Walla Walla, Washington, and James C. Gallagher, 20, of Lima, Ohio. The twin-engined trainer came down three miles S of the Cochise Ranger Station, Arizona, said the Douglas Field public relations officer.
;4 January : Boeing B-17G-10-BO Flying Fortress, 42-31257, flying in formation with other B-17s, catches fire near Alamo, Nevada, while en route between Indian Springs Army Airfield and Las Vegas Army Airfield, Nevada, and twelve of thirteen aboard bail out. One is killed when his chute fails to open in time, and one aboard the bomber dies in the crash 67 miles NNE of Las Vegas AAF. Other planes circled the spot where the plane went down and radioed the base news of the crash. "Eleven of their number were brought to the airfield hospital hospital last night, suffering from minor injuries and exposure after having spent the intervening time in heavy snow on a high mountain plateau."
;4 January : A P-38 Lightning, 42-68006, of the 11th Ferrying Squadron, 5th Ferrying Group, Love Field, Dallas, Texas, piloted by 2nd Lieutenant Chester R. Gunkel of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, crashes into Bald Rock at Cheaha State Park in Alabama, killing Gunkel. The plane was en route from Love Field to Atlanta, Georgia. One of the machine guns from the crash was recovered the next day. In 2023, the machine gun was donated to the Cheaha State Park museum.
;5 January : A P-47B Thunderbolt, 41-5920, piloted by Lt. Wesley A. Murphey Jr., crashed landed in the Green Swamp in North Carolina while on the return to Wilmington's Bluethenthal Field. This after experiencing landing gear failure and an eventual engine fire which took out the automatic prop and pitch control. The plane was en route to Fort Myers, Florida and had experienced a problem with a broken hinge on the right landing gear flap shortly after take off. Lt. Murphey was able to put the plane down in the Green Swamp coming to a stop on a marsh. With darkness closing in fast, Lt. Murphey ended up spending a cold night alone in the cockpit of the downed P-47 before eventually being rescued the next day by his fellow comrades. Even after being rescued, it took the rest of the afternoon to make it out of the swamp.
;8 January
;8 January :Five men are killed and two missing in the crash of Consolidated B-24J-40-CO Liberator, 42-73365, of the 776th Bomb Squadron, 464th Bomb Group, Pocatello Army Air Field, Idaho, piloted by Lt. Richard A. Hedges, when it crashes on the grounds of the Idaho National Laboratory, 40 miles NW of the air base, during a night training mission. Lt. Col. Marshall Bonner, commandant of the base, identified the dead as: Lt. Hedges, of Circleville, Ohio; 2d Lt. Robert W. Madsen, North St. Paul, Minnesota; 2d Lt. Richard R. Pitener, Chicago; Sgt. Charles W. Eddy, San Luis Obispo, California; and Sgt. George H. Peace Jr., Canton, Connecticut. Lt. Col. Bonner said on 11 January that the bodies of the two missing crew had been found and identified. They were 2d Lt. Lonnie L. Keepers, Aransas Pass, Texas, and Sgt. Louis H. Rinke, of Lawton, West Virginia.
;12 January : An American pilot, attached to the R.A.F., Wing Commander Lance C. Wade was killed in a flying accident just after takeoff from Foggia-Main Airfield, Italy, when hisAuster AOP Mk III, MT415, c/n 506, of Desert Air Force HQ, RAF, stalled and spun in. Wade was alone. Wade, from Reklaw, Texas, joined the RAF in Canada in April 1941, and is credited with 22 kills and two shared.
;12 January :Consolidated B-24D-165-CO Liberator, 42-72887, c/n 2447, of Biggs Field, Texas, piloted by 2d Lt. Donald E. Hermo, makes a crash landing 30 miles N of Biggs following mechanical failure. Seven crew are killed and one critically injured. One announced victim is the pilot, 2d Lt. Hermo, of Parma, Idaho.
;12 January
;13 January : Boeing B-17G-30-DL Flying Fortress, 42-38094, flown by Ralph M. Calhoon, and B-17G-10-VE, 42-40038, piloted by Thomas W. Williams, of the 99th Bomb Squadron, collide ~ SW of Brooksville Army Airfield, Florida, killing four officers and five enlisted men, reports Brigadier General Hume Peabody, commander of the Army Air Forces Tactical Center, at Orlando. One of the remaining seven victims is Sgt. Benjamin B. Estes.
;13 January :In Astoria, Oregon, a navy pilot was killed when two navy planes on training flights collided over the ocean, near the mouth of the Columbia River. One pilot landed safely, but the other parachuted out and was last seen floating out to sea by soldiers from Fort Stevens, who were not able to ascertain if he was already dead.
;14 January
;15 January :Boeing B-17F-50-VE Flying Fortress, 42-6147, of the 818th Bomb Squadron (H), 483d Bomb Group (H), MacDill Field, Florida, piloted by William R. Sablotny, lost in a blizzard over the Allegheny Mountains, crashes three miles N of Rich Mountain, West Virginia, killing six of seven aboard, state police said 16 January.
;15 January :North American AT-24A-NA Mitchell, 42-87531, built as a B-25D-30 and converted, of the 311th FTG, La Junta Army Airfield, La Junta, Colorado, flown by 2d Lt. Burton M. Paddock, former Portland, Oregon, policeman, crashes seven miles E of . The pilot and two California aviation cadets are killed, officials at the La Junta base said 16 January.
;18 January :[Douglas Douglas C-47 Skytrain|C-47 Skytrain|Douglas C-47A-60-DL Skytrain], 43-30682, of the 94th Troop Carrier Squadron, 439th Troop Carrier Group, Laurinburg–Maxton Army Air Base, South Carolina, piloted by Ralph L. Zimmerman, experiences engine failure on takeoff from Oakland Airport, and falls on an East Oakland residential area, coming down at 38th and Mare Streets, Oakland, California. All eight aboard die as the plane demolishes one house and sets two others afire. "The demolished house was that of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur E. Jacobsen, who escaped death because they were having breakfast in the only room left even reasonably intact. As the plane struck and exploded both were thrown to the floor. A neighbor, Mrs. Gwendolyn Wright, was thrown from her bed, which overturned on her. Her home partly burned but she and her 12-year-old son escaped serious injury."
;21 January :Army pilot 2d Lt. Harry E. Pape, of Sacramento, California, bails out of Bell P-39Q Airacobra, 42-8862, out of Concord Army Air Base, California, moments before it crashes aboard Naval Air Station Alameda, California, within feet of Building 5. Flying debris injures ten employees in Building 5, three seriously. A Navy photo of the pilot descending under his canopy is carried by Associated Press wirephoto on 23 January. He is not injured.
;22 January :Two Consolidated RB-24E Liberators of B-24 replacement training units 355th Bomb Squadron, 302d Bomb Group, Langley Field, Virginia, collide on a local flight. B-24E-25-CF, 41-29075, c/n 67, flown by Howard R. Cosgrove, crashes and burns, killing all seven on board, while B-24E-25-FO, 42-7420, c/n 444, piloted by Carlos N. Clayton, makes a crash landing in a swamp, none of the eight crew suffering serious injury despite the aircraft being virtually demolished.
;25 January :Consolidated B-24E-25-DT Liberator, 41-28544, of the 34th Combat Crew Training Squadron, Blythe Army Airfield, California, piloted by Donald J. Harris, crashes four miles N of Quartzsite, Arizona, killing all seven aboard, Col. Dave Wade, commandant of Blythe AAF, announces on 26 January.
;25 January :The U.S. Navy Pacific fleet headquarters announces on 1 February that a severe storm in the Pacific on 25 January forced down 22 of 23 Vought F4U-1D Corsairs of Marine squadron VMF-422 during a routine flight between the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, with all but six pilots rescued. "One plane reached base safely, one made a crash landing in the Ellice Islands and the other 21 came down at sea as far as is known, the Navy announcement said. The body of one pilot has been recovered and five men are listed as missing." This is considered the worst non-combat accident for a Marine Corps squadron of the war.
;28 January
;31 January :Short Stirling, EF232, of 1660 HCU, departs RAF Swinderby for a night exercise, with a crew that includes a pupil pilot and two flight engineers. The aircraft crashes at Carlton-le-Moorland at 2132 hrs., shortly after takeoff, killing all eight aboard, although some linger until the next day.
;31 January :Halifax Bomber DK1851 1664 HCU crashed into high ground south of Ilkley, Yorkshire. The aircraft was approximately 40 miles off course when it flew into Ilkley Moor not far from the Swastika Stone at around 17.30hrs. All seven airmen died as a result of the crash; one of these had initially survived but died of his injuries.
;1 February :Consolidated B-24J-40-CO Liberator, 42-73390, of the 605th Bomb Squadron, 399th Bomb Group, piloted by Arthur Fitzpatrick, attempting a forced night landing with engine trouble, crashes at March Field, California, killing four crew and sending six to the base hospital. Dead are Second Lt. Wesley Eugene Sory, 26, Livingston, Texas; Sgt. Samuel W. Hawthorne, 22, Morton, Texas; Second Lt. William Arthur Prange, 23, husband of Mrs. Hazel Prange of Los Angeles, and Second Lt. Fritz Barkan, Jr., 29, husband of Mrs. Elizabeth Barkan, of Riverside, California.
;2 February :Six fliers are killed and two seriously injured in the crash of a Boeing B-17G-30-BO Flying Fortress, 42-31904, early this date, 2/3 mile NW of Kearney Army Air Base, Nebraska, during a training flight. Two other crew were uninjured. Was assigned to the 9th HBP Headquarters, Grand Island Army Air Field, Nebraska, and flown by Leslie A. Bond.
;3 February :"MIAMI, Fla., Feb. 5 – Naval district headquarters announced today the loss of nine Navy and Marine Corps men in the crash of a plane from a high altitude into the sea seven miles east of Miami Thursday."
;4 February
;7 February : Nine Army airmen were killed when a heavy bomber crashed eight miles northeast of Wendover Air base." The aircraft was aConsolidated B-24H-15-CF Liberator, 41-29396, of the 789th Bomb Squadron, 467th Bomb Group, flown by Earl C. Bonville, involved.
;7 February: Aviation Cadet Max Quillen, 21, of the U.S. Naval Air Corps, was killed in an airplane collision near Converse, Indiana about 1:30 o'clock Tuesday afternoon in a routine flight. Report made by Lieutenant Douglas Campbell, press relations officer at Bunker Hill Naval Air Station, where Cadet Quillen was stationed, said that he was alone in the plane at the time of the accident and that he was flying near the Bunker Hill station at Peru, Indiana. After entering the service, Cadet Quillen left in the Flying Redbird Squadron from Parkersburg, West Virginia in April of last year and was only recently transferred to Indiana for advanced training.
;8 February:"FORT WAYNE, Ind., February 9 UP – Five Baer field fliers were killed last night when their C-47 Cargo plane crashed 30 miles southwest of Nashville, Tennessee, while on a combat training flight." C-47A-75-DL, 42-100873, c/n 10336, of the 1st R & FPU, flown by Homer W. Ferguson, involved.
;11 February:"A Marine Corps aviator was killed February 11 at 6:45 p.m. when his fighter plane failed to come out of a dive at a Mojave desert air base at Spangler, it was reported yesterday by Coroner R. E. Williams. The aviator, a first lieutenant, was on a routine flight and was diving his plane at a target from 6,000 feet, the coroner said. He added that the plane exploded as it hit the ground and the pilot was killed instantly. Coroner Williams went to the base yesterday to investigate the crash after being advised of the fatality by military authorities."
;12 February :Lt. James P. Christy, was killed in the crash of a Lockheed P-38J-10-LO Lightning, 42-67913, of the 311th Ferry Squadron, 27th Air Transport Group, RAF Langford Lodge,, Northern Ireland, near Hawarden, Wales. Christy enlisted in the Army Air Forces in 1942, was commissioned at Randolph Field, Texas, and served as a flight instructor before being posted overseas.
;16 February
;18 February
;18 February
;29 February
;3 March
;3 March :"SANTA ANA, March 4 – The Marine air base announced today that two fliers were killed yesterday in a plane crash seven miles east of San Juan Capistrano."
;4 March :A P-38 plane from Ontario Army air field crashed at 1:13PM in a vineyard half a mile east of Guasti school. Witnesses to the crash said the craft was traveling north when it suddenly went into a dive. The plane was reportedly demolished when it struck the ground, then caught fire. The pilot's remains were removed to Stone's mortuary in the town of Upland, California.
;11 March: Two Consolidated B-24H Liberators of the 782d Bomb Squadron (H), 465th Bomb Group (H), deployed temporarily at Oudna Field #1 or Oudna Field #2, near Tunis while the intended base, Pantanella Army Air Base, in south central Italy, is prepared for the heavy bomb group, suffer a mid-air collision during a training mission with both demolished. B-24H-15-FO, 42-52471, piloted by Charles A. Melody, and B-24H-15-FO, 412-52551, flown by Robert E. Murphy, are destroyed and both full crews killed.
21 March
Royal Air Force Halifax Bomber JP137 crashed soon after take-off from Hurn Airport in Southern England killing all on board and two civilians on the ground.
;23 March
;24 March
;24 March
;25 March :Grumman TBF-1 Avenger, BuNo 24295, of VC-9, piloted by Lt. William Francis Chamberlain, suffers a ramp strike coming aboard USS Solomons, during operations in the Atlantic while en route from NS Norfolk, Virginia, to Recife, Brazil. Despite the aircraft exploding and falling into the sea, the two aviators in the rear fuselage are rescued by the plane guard destroyer. Pilot stayed with the forward section which remained on deck. They would later perish while sinking U-860 at dusk on 15 June 1944, when their Avenger is caught in the blast from its low-altitude depth charge drop. This ramp strike incident has been misreported as occurring 25 May 1944, and the pilot identified as William F. Chamberlin.
;31 March / 1 April :Marshal Admiral Mineichi Koga, commander-in-chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet, is killed when his plane, a Kawanishi H8K2 "Emily" flying boat, crashes at 0200 hrs. during a typhoon between Palau and Davao while overseeing the withdrawal of the Combined Fleet from its Palau headquarters on this date. His death is not announced until May 1944 when he is formally replaced by Admiral Soemu Toyoda. Koga was promoted to Marshal Admiral posthumously and he was accorded a state funeral. His grave is at the Tama Cemetery, outside of Tokyo. Eight others on board survive the crash.
;8 April
;9 April
;9 April
;11 April
;13 April
;13 April
;15 April
;19 April
;21 April
;21 April
;24 April :A Boeing B-17G-55-BO Flying Fortress, 42-102685, of the 271st Air Base Unit, Kearney Army Airfield, Kearney, Nebraska, crashes six miles N of Bertrand, Nebraska, after an oxygen fire breaks out in flight. Six crew bail out but both pilots are killed. Dead were 2d Lt. Thomas G. Eppinger, pilot, of Huntington Woods, Michigan; and 2d Lt. Robert D. Shaw, co-pilot, of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Survivors were 2d Lt. Voris H. Fabik, navigator, of East St. Louis, Illinois; 2d Lt. Lewis E. Louraine, bombardier, of Purcell, Oklahoma; 2d Lt. Robert Durocher, assistant bombardier, hometown not available; S/Sgt. Clifford M. Bowen, engineer, of Jefferson, Oregon; S/Sgt. Obert M. Lay, radioman, of Aurora, Illinois; and Sgt. James T. Grantham, waist gunner, of Phoenix, Arizona.
;24 April :A Consolidated B-24 Liberator crashed into a mountain in Epsom, New Hampshire, killing all 10 occupants.
;28 April :A U.S. Navy Douglas R4D Skytrain crashed in "wilderness-locked terrain" 30 miles SE of Flagstaff, Arizona, initially killing 18 and injuring the remaining four aboard. It was reported that two of the four injured made it to a ranch, while the other two were later found at the crash site. The death toll rose to 19 on 3 May, when Radioman third class Joseph Daniels Dalesiodied in hospital.
;29 April : Seven people were killed, "including two women and a 20-month-old child", when a USAAF twin-engined bomber crashed into a house in Memphis, Tennessee. Resulting explosions burned five of the "bodies beyond recognition", and burned two adjoining houses.
;7 May : Seven passengers and crew members were killed when a USAAF B-25 bomber crashed into Oaklands Cemetery in West Goshen Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, after experiencing engine failure during a squall. The plane nose-dived into the ground and exploded, killing everyone on board. One or two victims bailed out, but they were too low for their parachutes to open fully. Newspapers reported no injuries on the ground. Hundreds of West Chester residents witnessed the crash, and up to ten thousand onlookers gathered to watch its aftermath.
;8 May :Vought OS2U-2 Kingfisher, BuNo 3092, suffers midair collision with OS2U-3 Kingfisher, BuNo 5422, 1/2–mile S of Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida.
;10 May :An instructor pilot and a student pilot flying Vultee BT-13B Valiant, 42-90353, of the 262d Combat Crew Training School, back to Bruning Army Air Field, Nebraska, after a training session, and Republic P-47D-15-RA Thunderbolt, 42-23149, of the same unit, whose pilot had been conducting individual training, returning to the same airfield, suffer a mid-air collision. Neither pilot was aware of the other aircraft's presence and both planes were far from the airfield control tower. After both aircraft made simultaneous turns, they were headed directly toward one another at high speed. They struck at approximately 4,000 feet, causing both aircraft to spiral toward the ground. The BT-13 crashed on the Frank Stych farm, ~3 miles W and 2 miles S of Milligan. The P-47 crashed on the Fred and Dorothy Stych farm, ~3 miles W and 3 miles S of Milligan. The P-47 pilot, F/O John Dobony, was killed. Both pilots in the BT-13 bailed out. The instructor pilot, 2d Lt. Frank W. Mrenak, survived, but the student pilot, 1st Lt. William D. Jaeger, lost his life. A Nebraska historical marker was erected in 2010 by the Milligan Memorial Committee for the World War II Fatal Air Crashes near Milligan, Nebraska. Accident reports give the location of the crash as 3 miles E of Ohiowa, Nebraska.
;15 May :Ex-RAF de Havilland Mosquito B.IV, DK296, formerly flown by 105 Squadron as 'GB-G', delivered to the Soviet Union for testing on 19 April 1944 by Soviet flight crew, is written off this date in landing accident at Sverdlovsk when pilot A. I. Kabanov loses control with engines at low power setting, turns to port, runs off runway, shears off landing gear and skids to a stop on its belly. Pilot and navigator P. I. Perevalov unhurt. This was the ninth flight of DK296 since it arrived in Russia and was the only Mosquito delivered to Russia. Kabanov was the Deputy Director of the Scientific Research Institute of the Air Force at this time, and had much experience flying foreign types.
;16 May : Two Fleet Air Arm Vought Corsair Is of 732 Naval Air Squadron, HMS Saker, out of Naval Air Station Brunswick, crash into Sebago Lake, Maine, killing Royal Navy pilots SubLt. Vaughan Reginald Gill and SubLt. Raymond L. Knott. Knott, in JT160, ex-USN BuNo 18182, hit the water first and then Gill, in JT132, ex-USN BuNo 18154, struck the water column from the first crash and went into the lake inverted. Neither pilot's body was recovered. When Historic Aircraft Restoration Corp. located one airframe in July 2003, they attempted to lay claim to the salvage rights, but a federal judge ruled in November 2003 that admiralty law does not apply as the lake is non-navigable from a federal standpoint, so ownership of the lake bottom and of the airframes lies with the State of Maine. By dismissing the case, the judge essentially ruled for the Maine and British governments, both of which oppose salvage as the airframes are regarded as wargraves.
;16 May :Lieutenant Commander David Wooster Taylor, 32, departs Naval Air Station Quonset Point, Rhode Island, for a routine training mission in Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat, BuNo 41944, but is killed when his fighter crashes and burns at the Sunset Valley Reservation in East Greenwich. The First Naval District headquarters at Boston said that Taylor was survived by his wife Virginia, 24, of North Kingston, and two young children, Jean, 4, and David Wooster Taylor III, 3.
;28 May
;29 May
;4 June : Capt. James W. Wilkinson, 31, of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, C.O. of the 82d Fighter Squadron, 78th Fighter Group, theorizes that if steam locomotives can be hit in the right places when strafed they will be put out of action for months rather than weeks. "The RAF was keen for him to demonstrate his theory, and arranged for a real locomotive to serve as his target in Wales. The exercise was scheduled for 4 June, but bad weather en route from Duxford held up Wilkinson's flight clearance. In an effort to get airborne he radioed the control tower and stated that he was going on a local test flight." Heading west, he flew Republic P-47D-22-RE Thunderbolt, 42-26256, 'MX-G', into a mist-shrouded mountain ~4.5 miles NE of Llandovery, in Carmarthenshire, Wales, and was killed. Wilkinson transferred to the 78th FG in November 1943 and became commanding officer of the 82d FS on 23 May 1943. He was awarded the Air Medal, Distinguished Flying Cross with 4 oak leaf clusters, Distinguished Service Cross and the Silver Star. He was credited with seven victories, six air, one ground.
;6 June :Eighteen U.S. Navy men are killed and 12 injured when Consolidated PB4Y-1 Liberator, BuNo 32073,, of VB-117, crashes on takeoff into a structure at Naval Auxiliary Air Station Camp Kearny on Kearny Mesa, NE of San Diego, California. The Eleventh Naval District said that seven men were seriously injured and five were in hospital with minor injuries. Twelve crew were aboard the plane but three survived with injuries. The other dead and injured were station personnel. The bomber hit the supply hut of VB-102, the destruction of that unit's supplies delaying the squadron's Pacific deployment by a month.
;8 June :Two North American B-25J Mitchell bombers collide in mid-air over the Kalihi neighborhood of Honolulu, five miles E of Hickam Field. B-25J-1-NC, 43-27786, piloted by James L. Pauley, and B-25J-5-NC, 43-27842, flown by James M. Owens II, plunge into a congested residential area, setting eleven or twelve dwellings alight. Ten women and children are killed in addition to all four air crew. This appears to be the largest death toll in a single fire in the history of the Hawaiian Islands.
;8 June
;9 June
;11 June :2d Lt. Lawrence R. Casey, on a fighter sweep on D-Day + 5 in Republic P-47D-11-RE Thunderbolt, 42-75610, of the 83d Fighter Squadron, 78th Fighter Group, out of USAAF Station 357, RAF Duxford, suffers prop failure due to lack of oil, but suffers no fire, and bails out, coming down ~10 miles N of Evreux, France. Hidden by the Resistance, he meets up with the 66th Tank Regiment on 25 June and soon is aboard a C-47 back to England.
;12 June: On this date, IJN submarine I-10 assembled and launched her Yokosuka E14Y to reconnoiter Majuro, in the Marianas. "Since the American expeditionary force had departed six days earlier, the aviator saw nothing important, and his plane, crashing on landing, had to be abandoned." I-10 will be sunk on 4 July 1944.
;Circa 13 June: As Vice Admiral Jisaburō Ozawa sorties from Tawi-Tawi for Operation A-Go, a deck crash occurs "that cast a deep gloom over the Mobile Fleet. A Jill torpedo-bomber, flown by an inexpert pilot, made a crash landing on the deck of flagship Taihō, collided with another bomber, burst into flames; and before the fire was put out two Zekes, two Judys and two Jills had been consumed. To the Japanese mind this was more than the loss of six valuable planes; coming so shortly after the sortie, it was considered an evil omen." Taihō, commissioned on 7 March 1944, will sink on 19 June during the Battle of the Philippine Sea after suffering a single torpedo hit from the, due to explosions resulting from design flaws and poor damage control.
;13 June :The Bäckebo rocket incident – A German V-2 rocket, specially equipped to be hand-controlled in flight by the Wasserfall anti-aircraft system, test-fired from Peenemünde, Germany and destined for a landing in Denmark, goes astray, exploding at ~1605 hours over a cornfield near the Swedish hamlet of Gräsdals, close to Bäckebo. The air explosion created a 13-foot wide crater. The Swedish government later transferred two tons of V2 debris to England, transported in a Douglas Dakota, reportedly in exchange for two squadrons of new tanks, or Supermarine Spitfires. The last leg of the delivery flight, from Scotland to London, was flown by Bernt Balchen.
;20 June
;22 June :A U.S. Army Air Force Luke Field flight instructor, flying low over Highway 89 near Wittmann, Arizona, becomes momentarily distracted and accidentally strikes an automobile, the wing of his AT-6 Texan decapitating a motorist. "Marana Field, Ariz., July 15 – Convicted of murder in the decapitation of a motorist with the wing of his low flying plane on an Arizona highway, a 21 year old Luke field flying instructor today heard a court martial order him imprisoned for life at hard labor and dismissed from the service. The officer, Lt. Howard E. Stittsworth of Wakefield, Kas., was ordered confined to his quarters at Luke field pending a review of the verdict by Maj. Gen. Ralph Cousins, commanding general of the western flying training command, by the judge advocate general in Washington, D.C., and by President Roosevelt. Lt. Dean C. Fundingsland, 23, Grand Forks, N.D., senior officer in the plane with Stittsworth at the time of the accident, was convicted Monday of a violation of flying regulations and was ordered dismissed from the service. Standing at attention as the verdict was read, Lt. Stittsworth appeared stunned by the decision. He closed his eyes momentarily as if comprehending the significance of the sentence. He turned and slumped into a chair with his head in his arms as members of his defense staff consoled him. The dark haired officer admitted on the stand yesterday that he was piloting a plane that bounced on the highway near Wittmann, Ariz., on June 22 and decapitated Earl W. Nepple, Los Angeles, Cal., hotel man. Stittsworth said he was flying low between two auxiliary fields adjacent to highway 89 and was leaning into the cockpit, trying to fix a balky landing gear, when he felt an impact. He said he was not aware of an automobile below him. Corp. Hammond Waugh, Luke field, who was inspecting lights on an auxiliary field, testified that the plane flew low over the field, 'buzzing' his truck."
;29 June
;11 July
;11 July
;12 July :The crash of a Bell P-39 Airacobra out of Victorville Army Air Field, California, kills Flight Officer Ruben Herrera, 23, of La Mesa, New Mexico, with the fighter coming down 20 miles W of the base, at approximately 1900 hrs., during routine training manoeuvers. Wreckage found at 0900 hrs. 13 July by search aircraft. Herrera had been assigned to Victorville since 1 July as a student pilot in transitional training for combat duty. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Y. Herrera, of La Mesa, N.M.
;13 July
;14 July :The crash of Beechcraft UC-45B Expeditor, 43-35569, of the 115th Base Unit, Godman Army Airfield, Fort Knox, Kentucky, in a violent storm, at Chattanooga, Tennessee, kills U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Paul W. Newgarden, commander of the 10th Armored Division, and five other officers, including two colonels. "In the plane, which disintegrated after crashing headlong through an orchard, were Col. Renn Lawrence, commander of a combat unit; 2d Lt. J. R. Lockett, Grenada, Miss.; Flight Officer E. S. Ihle, Slater, Ia., and Staff Sgt. F. J. Allbright, Bradford, O. The army withheld the name of the second colonel, pending notification of next of kin. All were en route from Fort Knox, Ky., to Augusta, Ga., where Gen. Newgarden was to have reviewed troops of the 10th armored division in celebration of the second anniversary of his command. Col. Howard Clark, Fort Oglethorpe commander, said the plane was torn into small pieces when it sheared through the orchard after narrowly missing a dormitory of the Bonny Oaks school." The twin-engined aircraft, piloted by Everett S. Ihle, comes down three miles NE of Chattanooga Municipal Airport.
;14 July :A USAAF B-24 Liberator bomber crashed and burned in the desert 25 miles north of Shavers Summit Army Airfield, California. Nine of the 12 crew parachuted to safety, uninjured, before the plane crashed and burned, but the remaining three died in the crash. The plane was returning to its base at March Field, California, from an Army Air field in Arizona.
;15 July : Consolidated B-24J-5-FO Liberator, 42-50871, of the 272d Base Unit, Topeka AAF, Kansas, piloted by Levine S. Nelson, crashes one mile NW of Ashville, New York, killing all five crew. "Syracuse, N.Y., July 15 – Lt. Harry A. Dunn, public relations officer of the Syracuse army air base, announced tonight the names of the five flyers killed in the crash of an army bomber near Blockville, N.Y., early today. The dead include 2nd Lt. Vernon E. Stiltz, Milwaukee, Wis.; 2nd Lt. John Jurzazak, Chicago, and Sgt. Art L. Brown, Sterling, Ill." The Aviation Archaeological Investigation and Research website indicates that the bomber was involved in a mid-air collision, but provides no further details, and no other aircraft appear in accident report listings at this location this date.
;16 July : A Royal Air Force Douglas Dakota III, KG472, c/n 12584, assigned to RAF in March 1944, with No. 267 Squadron RAF, departed Bari Airport, Italy, on a special infiltration and evacuation mission to Yugoslavia. At Tičevo landing ground, the pilot attempted a go around after overshooting. The aircraft gained height rapidly for a short distance then rapidly lost height as the pilot retracted the flaps and crashed at 2315 hrs. about 500 yards beyond the end of the flare path. striking the ground on an even keel with both motors under power. A Court of Inquiry found that, "the accident was caused by the retraction of the flaps when the aircraft was at low speed near the ground." Four crew and 17 passengers were on board of which 11 were killed, one died of injuries later and nine injured. Other passengers were Yugoslavians. The dead are now buried in the Belgrade War Cemetery, with exception of Air Commodore Guy Lloyd Carter DSO AFC of HQ Balkan AF who subsequently died at Bari Hospital on 18 July 1944 and who is buried at Bari War Cemetery. Among the injured passengers were Winston Churchill's SOE agent son, Randolph Spencer-Churchill, Capt. Evelyn Waugh and Mr P Jordan all of the British Mission. Spencer-Churchill sustains back and knee injuries, while Waugh is severely burned.
;18 July
;19 July :Boeing B-17G-60-BO Flying Fortress, 42-102937, "Ready Freddie", of the 412th Bomb Squadron, 95th Bomb Group, crashed at RAF Duxford, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, when attempting to buzz the airfield at too low an altitude. The aircraft clipped a hangar and crashed into a barracks block killing all thirteen on board and one person on the ground.
;20 July :Two North American P-51C Mustangs of Pinellas RTU, III Fighter Command, depart Pinellas Army Air Field, Florida, at 0700 hrs. EWT on a local gunnery training mission, but instead of flying the briefed mission, the pilots flew to Jacksonville, 180 miles distant, where 2d Lt. John Keane "Jack" Egar, in P-51C-5-NT, 42-103655, descended at ~0745 hrs. to ~75 feet altitude to buzz his childhood home at 2749 Post Street. He struck two trees and the plane skidded across the street, hit a third tree, several houses and a line of garages. "The engine went through an apartment building, where, according to the July 21, 1944, edition of The Florida Times-Union, it narrowly missed a married couple and their 9-year-old daughter, before coming to a stop in the middle of Willow Branch Avenue." Egar's body was found in the wreckage. His wingman, 2d Lt. James R. Cope, apparently jerked on his controls in P-51C-5-NT, 42-103728, to avoid Egar's fighter, the Army report said, and he then hit a different cluster of trees. "His plane followed a course behind the homes on Post Street before hitting 2865 Post St. That house was demolished by fire and the house next door was gutted by the flames, the report said." Cope was killed, as was Millard E. McGhee, "a 27-year-old shoe store manager, who was in his bathroom shaving when the engine of Cope's plane came through the wall and hit him. According to the report, 18 houses and four apartment buildings sustained some level of damage. So did a dozen garages and eight vehicles. Remarkably, only one civilian was killed. Three others were injured, one seriously." The cause was found to be pilot error and negligence. A commemoration of the accident was held at the crash site on 21 July 2012.
;20 July :"Walla Walla, Wash., July 20 – All 12 crewmen were killed when a Liberator bomber from the Walla Walla Army Air field crashed yesterday near Touchet, 17 miles west of there, after exploding in the air."
;21 July
;21 July
;22 July :"Tampa, Fla., July 22 – Eight Army fliers were killed, 10 were injured and two are missing as a result of a collision of two Flying Fortresses in the air near Brooksville, Fla."
;23 July
;23 July:Focke-Wulf Fw 190C V33 prototype, Werke Nummer 0058, modified to Fw 190 V33/U1 as prototype for Ta 152H-0 with Junkers Jumo 213E-1 engine and new wing fuel tanks of the definitive Ta 152H-1, comprising three tanks in each inner portion, located just aft of the truncated mainspar, first flown 12 July 1944, crashes this date out of Langenhagen, setting back the flight test programme.
;31 July
;August
;5 August
;9 August :Consolidated B-24J-155-CO Liberator, 44-40348, c/n 4284, to U.S. Navy as PB4Y-1, BuNo 38766, of VB-116, piloted by Lt. Romane C. Anderson, of Houston, Texas, swerves off runway on takeoff from NAB Eniwetok, Marshall Islands, Central Pacific, crashes into parked aircraft while carrying nine X 500-pound bombs. Load of 2,900 gallons of fuel ignites, setting of seven of the bombs, destroying either 106 parked naval aircraft or 85 planes destroyed with 55 more damaged. One source states that nine crew are killed and two injured while another states that ten crew are killed or died later. The Navy publicly reveals news of the accident on 24 August 1945.
;13 August
;21 August
;23 August
;23 August
;27 August or 28 August: One of the two Vought OS2U-3 Kingfishers assigned aboard USS New Jersey, BuNo 5549, of VO-7, piloted by Ensign Allen R. Trecartin, crashes while trying to land ~2,000 yards off the vessel's starboard quarter while the battlewagon is transiting from Pearl Harbor, H.I., to Manus Island in the Admiralties. Pilot and rear seater are rescued by the destroyer USS Hickox and the OS2U sunk by destroyer gunfire. Date discrepancy may have to do with the carrier's position relative to the International Date Line.
;Post September
;September
;4 September:Douglas A-26B-15-DL Invader, 41-39158, first assigned to Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Station, Boscombe Down on 11 July 1944 for six weeks' testing, then to 2 Group for further evaluation, crashes this date when the upper turret cover left airframe, striking the vertical tail.
;6 September
;8 September :2d Lt. John T. McCarthy, in Republic P-47D-6-RE Thunderbolt, 42-74782, of the 262d FPTS, on a combined interception training mission out of Bruning Army Air Field, Nebraska, at ~1540 hrs. CWT, at 16,000 feet altitude, makes a pursuit curve mock attack from the high port side of Boeing B-17G-35-DL Flying Fortress, 42-107159, terminating his attack from about 250 to 300 yards away from the bomber, but "mushes" into the B-17 while breaking away, hitting the port wing near the number one engine. "Both planes burst into flames immediately, the B-17 exploding, disintegrating into several pieces, and crashing to the ground. The P47 hit the ground in a tight spiral, exploding when it hit the ground." The collision occurs ~5 miles NE of Bruning AAF. The fighter pilot is KWF. The B-17, of the 224th AAF Base Unit, out of Sioux City Army Air Base, Iowa, was part of a formation of bombers on a camera-gunnery mission, en route to Bruning AAF, which was flying in several elements. The fighter struck the wing man of the second element of the low formation. Only four crew of ten aboard the B-17 manage to bail out. Killed are 2d Lts. William F. Washburn, and Bernard I. Hall, pilot and co-pilot, F/O George A. Budovsky, Cpl. John E. Tuchols, and Pvt. Henry C. Sedberry. Surviving are Cpls. LeNoir A. Greer, and Walter A. Divan, Pvt. Albert L. Mikels, and Pfc. Reuben L. Larson. "It is the opinion of the Aircraft Accident Investigating Committee that responsibility for the accident is 100% pilot error on the part of the pilot of the P47, in that poor judgement and poor technique was used in 'breaking-off'." A Nebraska historical marker for the accident was erected in 2010 by the Milligan Memorial Committee for the World War II Fatal Air Crashes near Milligan, Nebraska.
;13 September
;14 September: Douglas SBD-4 Dauntless, BuNo 10575, 'B-16', crashes off bow of USS Sable during flight operations on Lake Michigan at 1001 hrs. Pilot Ensign Albert Grey O'Dell, A-V, USNR, recovered by U.S. Coast Guard 83-foot Wooden Patrol Boat WPB-83476 at 1003, brought back aboard Sable at 1013. Pilot suffers minor contusion of right shoulder, "numerous jagged lacerations of the face, chin and forehead." Airframe rediscovered on 11 April 1989 by A&T Recovery of Chicago, Illinois, and recovered 26 August 1991 on behalf of the National Museum of Naval Aviation and brought initially to Crowley's Yacht Yard for disassembly and shipment for restoration. After restoration it is displayed for a time at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Dayton, Ohio, marked as a USAAF A-24 Banshee. It is now on display in Concourse C at Chicago Midway International Airport, marked as the SBD, 'B-3', flown by Ensign Frederick Thomas Weber of VB-6,, at the Battle of Midway. Credited with a bomb hit on the Japanese carrier Hiryū, he was killed in action, and awarded the Navy Cross.
;15 September :A U.S. Army Air Force Consolidated TB-24J Liberator, 42-50890,, of the 3007th AAF Base Unit, Kirtland Field, piloted by Warren E. Crowther, en route from Bakersfield, California, to Kirtland Field, New Mexico, and off-course, crashed into a boulder field near the top of Humphreys Peak, 10 miles N of Flagstaff, Arizona, at approx. 0330 hrs. All eight crew members were killed. The location is nearly inaccessible and has been left mostly as-is.
;18 September
;19 September
;19 September
;30 September
;October
;October
;2 October
;5 October
;6 October
;8 October
;10 October
;15 October :A U.S. Navy plane, thought to be from NAAS North Bend, Oregon, crashes into a residential district of the small western Oregon town of Coquille, killing three crew, and injuring five civilians, including an infant, one possibly fatally. The plane sheared off the chimney of one house and crashed into several others on a street near Coquille High School.
;17 October :U.S. Navy K-class blimp K-111, of Airship Squadron 33, operating from NAAF Del Mar, California, becomes lost in fog, strikes a hill above Avalon on Catalina Island, California, burns, five crew dying immediately and a sixth succumbing in hospital the next day. Four survivors, all with injuries.
;17 October :The U.S. Navy in San Diego announces on 19 October that 13 were killed when Consolidated PB2Y-3 Coronado, BuNo 7051, crashed into a mountain on Los Coronadoes Island, 20 miles off the Southern California coast. Flying boat was of VPB-13, FAW-1, pilot was Lieutenant Robert D. Cullinane. Aircraft crashed on South Coronado, southernmost of the four islands.
;18 October
;19 October :En route to the Gulf of Paria, off Trinidad, Ensign T. J. Connors, A-V, USNR, of VF-67, crashes in a Grumman F6F Hellcat, astern of USS Bennington, while making a strafing run on a towed target sled. "Search results were negative." This was the Bennington's shakedown cruise.
;19 October :Two Grumman F6F-5N Hellcats, of the Night Fighter Training Unit, depart Naval Auxiliary Air Station Charlestown, Rhode Island, for a night pursuit training mission, piloted by Ensign George K. Kraus, 22, of Wisconsin and Ensign Merle H. Longnecker, 20, of North Dakota. "Longnecker was the pursuing plane, and sent the radio message 'Splash,' indicating he was close enough to Kraus' plane for an attack. That was the last message heard, as the planes apparently collided over the Laurel Hill section of Norwich and crashed about a quarter mile apart in the woods of the" Norwich State Hospital property. "Fire and rescue crews raced to the scene, where the crash sparked a small forest fire. Navy crews from an auxiliary base in Groton secured the site and recovered the bodies the next day.
;20 October
;22 October
;24 October :Crew of U.S. Navy Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer, BuNo 59394, of VPB-106, out of NAAS Camp Kearney, California, on a long-range training mission, becomes lost in bad weather, runs out of fuel, and ditches in the Gulf of California, eleven crew, two female Marines, and the squadron canine mascot all evacuating the bomber as it rapidly sinks. "SAN DIEGO, Oct. 30 – How two women marines and 11 crew members of a Navy Liberator bomber which crashed at sea existed for four days in Robinson Crusoe style on a deserted island near the eastern coast of Baja California before being rescued by Mexican fishermen was disclosed today by the Navy. The bomber sank almost immediately after making a crash landing late Tuesday night, but the crew was able to salvage a small six-man life raft. So crowded was the raft that some of the men were forced to swim to give more room for the two women – Pfc. Helen L. Breckel, 21, Cincinnati, and Pfc. Edna H. Shaughnessy, 28, Manchester, N.H. The party existed on clams and raw fish while on the island, 330 miles southeast of here. A fishing boat sighted them Saturday and took them to Bahia de Los Angeles and a Coast Guard plane returned them here yesterday."
;26 October
;26 October
;4 November :"A Navy ensign was killed, twelfth district headquarters announced today, as he attempted to parachute from his plane over the Fallon, Nev., auxiliary air base. The engine of the Hellcat fighter failed just over the field. As the ensign jumped he hit the plane and was rendered unconscious before his ‘chute opened."
;6 November :U.S. Navy Douglas R4D-5, BuNo 39063, c/n 9941, built as a USAAF C-47A-40-DL, 42-24079, and transferred to the Navy, collides with Goodyear FG-1A Corsair, BuNo 13334, and crashes into the St. Johns River near Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida. All 18 on both planes killed.
;8 November :"NORFOLK, Va., Nov. 8 – A Navy plane crashed off Old Point Comfort and the Navy reported that the 13 men aboard were either dead or missing."
;10 November :"Clovis, N.M., Nov. 12 – Six officers and nine enlisted men were killed Friday night when a four-engined bomber crashed and burned about 25 miles southeast of the Clovis Army air field." Boeing B-29A-1-BN Superfortress, 42-93832, c/n 7329, delivered to the USAAF 15 April 1944, assigned to the Combat Crew Training Squadron, 234th Army Air Force Base Unit, Clovis AAF, piloted by Thomas R. Opie, is listed by two sources as having crashed approximately 25 miles NE of the airfield, at variance with the initial United Press report.
;10 November :Famed Consolidated B-24J-1-CO Liberator, 42-72994, "Bolivar", of the 30th Bomb Group, sent home from the Pacific after 81 missions with three different crews for a war bond tour, crash lands near Vultee Field, the base for Vultee Aircraft in Downey, California, and never flies again. One crew member suffers a broken leg.
;11 November :A court-martialed former U.S. Army Air Force officer escapes from the Craig Field, Alabama, guardhouse, steals North American AT-6A-NA Texan, 41-488, c/n 77-4517, of the 2138th AAF Base Unit, flies to Louisiana, and bails out E of New Orleans, the unmanned trainer coming down early on 12 November near the former Micheaud Airport, where Higgins Industries had constructed a war plant. "NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 13, – Robert G. Kaslow, former Army Air Corps officer, who escaped from the Craig field, Ala., guardhouse Friday night and fled in an Army plane, was captured here tonight by F.B.I. agents. The assistant special agent in charge of the New Orleans F.B.I. office, Zack J. Van Landingham, announced that Kaslow, 21, of Johnson City, N.Y., who was serving a 30-year sentence at the Alabama field for violations of the articles of war, was taken in custody at 5 p.m. in the cocktail lounge of a New Orleans hotel. Van Landingham said Kaslow was dressed in the full uniform of a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Corps and was accompanied by 'a New Orleans girl whom he had known approximately one year.' The agent said the girl was being held for questioning but he declined to identify her. He said she was about 25 years old. The plane in which the flier was said by Craig field officers to have escaped crashed Saturday at Higgins airport near here. It was unoccupied. Van Landingham said Kaslow told F.B.I. men he parachuted from the plane at 5,000 feet above a swamp near here and made his way into the city on foot. Kaslow was arrested last March for stealing $1,500 and an automobile from a fellow officer at Craig field. He escaped from the guardhouse and was retaken in Santa Monica, California, after a gun battle with police. His court-martial and sentence followed." "Kaslow was arrested last night in a hotel cocktail lounge with an unidentified young woman, who was released by FBI agents today. An unusual 'V' ring worn by the 25 year old brunette companion furnished the principal clue for FBI agents who trailed them from one night spot to another. Tracing the flyer's movements from the swamp in which he landed, the FBI said he tied pieces of his parachute about his feet and legs, as he had been taught in his military training, and hiked across the marshlands. He swam several canals and spent one night in a lean-to he constructed by a waterway." Two sources give this aircraft's crash location as Orlando, Florida, but this is clearly incompatible with the details of Kaslow's flight and arrest. Kaslow was found guilty of violating eight articles of war by another court- martial and sent to the Atlanta Penitentiary with a 30-year sentence. An appeal filed by Kaslow was rejected on 20 April 1950, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the judgement of the lower court.
;11 November :"Los Angeles, Nov. 12 – Sheriff's deputies and Army rescuers climbed rain-sodden, mountainous terrain tonight endeavoring to reach the wreckage of an Army twin-engine cargo plane which crashed late last night against Strawberry peak, in the Mt. Wilson area. Army officials said 13 persons, all military personnel, were aboard. The plane, en route from St. Joseph, Mo., to Mines field here, last reported by radio to Bakersfield about 8 p.m. yesterday. Flight officer Earl L. Olson of the air transport command's sixth ferrying group sighted the wreckage today. An Army spokesman said it had not been determined if any of the passengers survived." Douglas C-47B-1-DL Skytrain, 43-16143, c/n 20609, assigned to the 561st Base Unit, Rosecrans Field, Missouri, was piloted by Rae C. Kelly. Joe Baugher states that the aircraft was en route from Hamilton Field, San Rafael, California, when it crashed in Wildcat Gulch, in heavy clouds. Twelve killed, one survived. Follow-up coverage by the Associated Press, noted that two injured men were rescued from the site, PM 3/c Buford Chism, and Cpl. Kenneth Bedford, home towns not listed, who were taken to the Pasadena area Army hospital. "Not all the 11 victims died instantly when the plane struck the peak, rebounded and disintegrated, scattering bodies and wreckage in Wildcat canyon in the Mt. Wilson area. 'We heard one man, somewhere down in the canyon, crying for help during the night,' rescuers quoted the sailor. 'We tried to locate and help him, but in our condition we couldn't get down there. We heard him dying.' Deputies said the sailor had disregarded his own injuries to minister to the Negro soldier, more seriously hurt. The dead, they added, included three Majors and several Navy men." An Army nurse was among the victims.
;12 November :Douglas C-54A-1-DO Skymaster, 42-107427, c/n 7446/DO 54, of Air Transport Command, strikes the side of a mountain near Cape St. George on the southwestern tip of Port au Port Peninsula, Newfoundland, ~30 miles W of Ernest Harmon Field where it was due to land. "Harmon Field, Newfoundland, Nov. 14 – Army officials announced today that nine persons were killed and nine others injured in a crash Sunday of an army transport plane against the side of a mountain 30 miles west of the air transport command base here. Army officials said the plane was en route overseas and had left LaGuardia field, N.Y., late Saturday night. It was operated by a commercial airline under contract to the army. E. C. Watkins, pilot, of Long Island, N.Y., was killed, as were four others of the civilian crew of six. Four of the dead and all of the injured were servicemen. The crash occurred shortly after 1:28 a. m. Sunday morning after the plane had reported by radio to the Harmon field tower preparatory to landing. The plane was discovered about five hours later by searching planes near the tip of the Port au Port peninsula. The army announcement said operations officers reported visibility was good at the time of the crash, but added that a heavy southeasterly wind was blowing." The Aviation Archeology site lists the pilot as Edwin C. Watkins.
;13 November :Douglas C-47-DL Skytrain, 41-7834, c/n 4333, crashes three miles NW of Casper Army Air Base, Wyoming, shortly after takeoff, killing four Army officers, two Marines, a sailor, a WAVE, and three soldiers. Airframe SOC on 14 November 1944. The Aviation Archaeological Investigation and Research website lists the pilot as Sig O. Owens, and the aircraft as assigned to the 7th Ferrying Squadron, at Gore Field, Montana; however, that unit and base assignment ended when the 7th Ferrying Squadron disbanded on 1 April 1944.
;13 November :"March Field, Nov. 13 – Six crew men were killed here today when a twin-engined medium bomber crashed near the barracks area, narrowly missing two dormitory buildings which were slightly damaged when the plane burst into flame. Occupants of the barracks escaped injury. The plane had last taken off from Coolidge field, Ariz., Col. Leroy A. Walthall, base commandant, said, but he was unable to disclose its home base." North American B-25J-20/22-NC Mitchell, 44-29665, of the 5053d AAF Base Unit, Mather Field, California, piloted by George F. Tobola, spun in.
;14 November
;22 November
;26 November: Leith Hill multiple aircraft accident, three United States Air Force Douglas C-47A-30-DKs crashed into the side of Leith Hill after having to descend from 1,500 feet to 1,000 feet due to low clouds, killing all 13 crewmen.
;27 November
;29 November
;30 November :Two B-24 Liberator bombers, flying out of Davis-Monthan Army Air Base, collide at 0740 hrs. over the desert NE of Tucson, Arizona. The planes were on a training mission and all eighteen airmen died. The location of this crash was over a major natural drainage canal known as the Pantano Wash, at a point half-way between present day East Broadway and East Speedway. Aircraft involved were both B-24J-35-CO Liberators, 42-73344 and 42-73357, of the 233d Combat Crew Training Squadron. Harold D. Ballard piloted 344, while 357 was flown by Theodore V. Glock.
;5 December
;6 December
;6 December
;7 December
;11 December
;15 December
;15 December
;17–18 December: While U.S. Navy Task Force 38 attempts to refuel in the eastern half of the Philippine Sea between operations against Japanese airfields on Luzon, Third Fleet encounters a newly-formed, deceptively small, but extremely violent typhoon, of which it has virtually no warning. TF 38 is operating with seven Essex-class carriers and six light carriers, while the refueling group has five escort carriers with replacement planes. By 1500 on 17 December it becomes too rough for the escort carriers to recover CAP and in two fighters, waved off from their respective decks, the pilots are directed to bail out with rescue by a destroyer. In the storm the fleet carriers lose no planes, although seas are so heavy that Hancock's flight deck, 57 feet above waterline, scoops up green water. On the light carriers, plane lashings part on hangar decks and padeyes are pulled out of flight decks.
;19 December
;21 December : South African Air Force Douglas DC-3, KG498, crashed into a hill during low visibility near Torrettoria, Italy. 22 killed and one injured.
;24 December : Fleet Air Arm Eastern Aircraft Martlet V, JV482, '6C', of 882 Naval Air Squadron, flown by S/Lt. Peter Lock on a practice bombing sortie at Lough Neagh suffers engine fire forcing pilot to ditch in Portmore Lough. Pilot survives but aircraft is deemed irrecoverable. On 30 April 1984, the airframe is recovered by the Ulster Aviation Society, lifted by a Westland Lynx, XZ665, of 665 Squadron AAC, for eventual restoration.
;24 December :Christmas eve crash of Douglas A-26B-10-DT Invader, 43-22273, c/n 18420, of the 381st CCTS, Marianna Army Airfield, Florida, piloted by Benjamin F. Schoenfield, five miles S of Sardinia, Ohio, kills three crew and injures one.
;25 December :Ten die and 17 are injured as Douglas C-47A-10-DL Skytrain, 42-23360, c/n 9222, hits fog-shrouded Roundtop mountain, five miles SE of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The fire department from New Cumberland, called by a local resident who reports a fire in the woods, arrives shortly after 0500 hrs., and has to cut survivors out of the wreckage with an ax. Some bodies had been thrown clear. "Fifteen of the injured, suffering fractures and burns, were brought to the Harrisburg General hospital, and the other two were taken to a New Cumberland army hospital."
;25 December :The crash of a U.S. Navy Douglas R4D-6 Skytrain of VRF-3, Naval Air Station Olathe, Kansas, piloted by W. H. Beck, in an Indianapolis, Indiana, suburb kills five and injures two. "The plane was bound for Columbus, O., after being turned back at St. Louis, Mo., on a flight to Olathe, Kas., naval air base. Everett Maxwell, Marion county deputy sheriff, said five bodies were removed from the wreckage. He reported the craft was apparently attempting to land at the municipal airport and overshot the field in a fog. It struck a tree as the pilot tried to pull up, Maxwell said. Three of the men killed in the crash were navy personnel attached to naval air transport squadron 3 with headquarters at the Olathe base. Others involved were army personnel."
;28 December