Four Airmen Killed In Crash Of Bombing Plane At McAdam
Trainer From Pennfield Struck Indicator On Water Tank, Exploded In Air And Damaged Houses Sunday; Crew Members Of R.C.A.F.
Transcribed by G. Christian Larsen

McAdam, Dec. 21 - Four R.C.A.F. men from Pennfield were killed instantly Sunday when a twin-engine bombing plane crashed a quarter of a mile from the railway station here.

    The aircraft had been flying in formation with two others, over McAdam. Railway employes saw something fall from the plane before it collided with a 20-foot indicator above an 80-foot water tank.

    Flames shot from the plane when it struck the indicator. A few seconds later a heavy explosion occurred, apparently from the bomber's gas tank.

    The flame-enveloped plane crashed on a knoll, sideswiped a house occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Webber and seven children, broke a window, stripped off a back porch and turned over several times while cutting a broad swath 300 feet long through snow, ice and bushes.

    The explosion blew the bomber to bits over a large area. Bodies of three of the four occupants were hurled a considerable distance from the crash. The fourth was found in the wreckage after the McAdam fire department extinguished the flames with water pumped from a locomotive.

    The nose of one engine was found 300 yards from where the crash occurred.

SOURCE: The Saint Croix Courier (St. Stephen, NB) - December 23, 1943.

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