\
THE
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS_
VOL. LIII No. 101 NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, AUGUST 24, 1951_■_Per Copy—15<*
47 Lives Claimed x\s Million-Dollar DC-6
Disintegrates On California Hillside
By JERRY T. BAULCH
OAKLAND, Calif., (/P)—Forty
seven persons died on the crest
of a low hill near here today as
a million-dollar air liner crashed
and disintegrated. There were no
survivors.
The plane, a DC-6-B, was flying
non-stop from Chicago to Oak
land. The flight originated in
Boston last night.
In Chicago, United Air Lines
said the list of 41 passengers was
sketchy, with some names incom
plete, and few home towns listed.
Three minutes before the crash,
pilot Marion W. Hedden of Los
Altos, Calif., had given the con
trol tower at Oakland a routine
report. Then residents of the area
were startled by a flaming flash
and the rumble of a blast. The
six crew members and the passen
gers died when the huge liner
plowed into the hill. The shattered
debris rained down for 200 yards
as the plane slid into the sharp
ribbed ravine at the base of the
knoll.
There was no road to the tragic
scene. Ambulances and other res
cue cars slipped and slid over the
smooth dry grass as they tried to
make their way up the slopes and
through the many small ravine^.
About two acres of grass and
scrub brush burned as the fire
and blast shook the giant air liner
into a thousand pieces.
Three hours after the crash 13
bodies had been recovered and
placed in ambulances.
Photographer Paul Strong of
#V' the Associated Press San Fran
cisco bureau flew over the scene
a short time after the crash and
said heavy fog had settled over
the hilltop. His pilot said he had
never seen such demolition in a
crashed airplane.
Young Mother Falls
From Cockpit Of
Sightseeing Plane
r r
^ , WENATCHEE, Wash., CP) — A
young mother fell to her death
from the open cockpit of a sight
seeing plane yesterday.
She was Mrs. Celeste Collyer,
29, wife of Wallace D. Collyer,
and mother of three children.
Ken Paton, pilot of the two
* setter plane, said they had risen
about 300 feet in the air when he
felt a tug on the stick.
j Paton said he turned around
’; and saw the cockpit was empty
except for the parachute required
of all passengers in such planes,
and the woman’s shoes.
The pilot said Mrs. Collyer had
called the airport three times this
week and asked if an open cock
pit plane was available for a joy
ride. The woman identified her
self as Mary Johnson, Paton said.
Calls For Use of A-Bomb
/ If Truce Talks Are At End
WASHINGTON, (/P) — Repre
sentative Brooks (D-La> called to
day for use of the atomic bomb
in Korea if the communists de
finitely end the Kaesong cease
fire talks.
9)
Jet Crashes Near
j Anchorage, 2nd
Within 13 Hours
ANCHORAGE, UP) — A jet
fighter plane crashed near the
new International airport yester
day, killing the pilot.
The crash, latest in a series of
aerial mishaps in Alaska, occur
red some 13 hours after a C-47
crashed at Summit, half way be
tween here and Fairbanks on the
Alaska railroad. Nine men died in
The C-47 crash.
Air Force officers said the pilot
of the F-94 jet fighter was thrown
clear of the plane as it hit under
growth and apparently was killed
on impact. The plane was attached
to the 65th Fighter Interceptor
Squadron.
The two crashes within 13 hours
capped what has been *one of the
most disastrous months in Alaska
aviation. It brings to at least half
a dc/zen the number of fatal
crashes, with close to 70 victims
dead or missing. The string of
tragedy began July 21 with disap
pearance of a Canadian Korean
airlift plane with 38 aboard.
C-47 With Nine
Aboard Crashes,
Burns, at Summit
ANCHORAGE, (JP) — A C-47
transport plane with nine persons
aboard crashed at Summit, 152
miles north of here on the Alaska
Railroad, at 8:42 Wednesday night.
First reports indicated all were
killed.
The plane was enroute to Eiel
son Air Base near Fairbanks from
Elmendorf Air Base at Anchorage.
A CAA radio officer at Sum
mit reported he had talked to the
pilot of the plane shortly before
the crash but was not informed of
any trouble.
Contact was broken and the op
erator said he saw the plane div
ing into the runway of the Sum
mit landing field.
Bad weather kept search planes
from Summit.
The Alaska Railroad sent an
ambulance car to the crash site
with doctors and a rescue team.
The crash was the latest in a
month-long series of major aerial
| mishaps which have claimed near
ly four-score lives in the Pacific
Northwest and Alaska.
Navy Catalina Crashes
Killing Eight Crewmen
ATLANTA, (/P)—A Navy Cata
lina flying boat carried eight men
to a flaming death last night in
a crash down a 60-foot cliff at
the end of a runway.
The dead, four officers and forur
enlisted men, were reservists on
two weeks active duty at the
naval air station here.
ELIZABETH, N. J., (JP)—Mrs.
Elsie Petrozello of Springfield
won a divorce yesterday on
grounds of cruelty. She testified
her husband’s habit of throwing
knives, forks and water at her
made her “nervous.”
Dewey Tangles
With Salmon,
Wins This One
KETCHIKAN, (/P) — Governor
Thomas E. Dewey of New York
i tangled with Alaska’s famed fight
j ing salmon yesterday and had a
one-out-of-four batting average.
The Governor was the first in
the party to’ land one of the sil
ver beauties, a 14-pounder. * He
hooked three others, but they,
1 like the presidency, were the big
ones that got away.
Governor Dewey had expected
to be a spectator only, but mem
bers of the party said he became
an enthusiastic fisherman after
landing the first one in 15 min
utes.
The governor was to address a
Chamber of Commerce session in
Juneau today.
Editor’s Note: Although press
reports state that Sitka and Fair
banks have been eliminated from
the itinerary of Governor Dewey,
no word has been received con
I cerning the dedication planned at
j Kotzebue, which was reported
earlier in the week.
Auditor Refuses to
Pay Taxi Bill For
Gov. Dewey Party
JUNEAU, (/P)—A taxi bill for
| hauling Gov. Thomas E. Dewey’s
; bags from the Juneau airport
brought an impasse in the Demo
crat-dominated statehouse.
Highway Engineer Frank Met
calf took the Dewey party bags
in a taxi after the New York Re
publican Governor landed at the
airport, 10 miles from town, Tues
day. The Governor himself was
whisked away by Democratic Gov.
Ernest Gruening.
Territorial Auditor Neil Moore
refused yesterday to approve the
$5 tax voucher turned in by Met
calf. Moore ruled that taxi ser
vice for distinguished visitors is
not a legal function of the High
way Engineer.
Statehouse sources expected the
voucher to end up as a charge
against the $6,000 entertainment
I fund voted to the governor by
| the legislature.
_
24 U.S. Sabrejets Get
2 Out of 40 Red MIGs
FIFTH AIR FORCE HEAD
QUARTERS, Korea, Saturday, (/P)
—Two communist jet planes were
shot down Friday when 24 Am
| erican Sabrejets attacked 40 Red
; MIGs over North Korea, Fifth
: Air Force Headquarters announ
ced today.
All the American planes re
turned safely.
Baseball Scores
THURSDAY RESULTS
American League
Cleveland 2—New York 1
Washington 10—Detroit 0
Philadelphia 6—Chicago 3
Boston 9—St, Louis 3
National League
St. Louis 4—Brooklyn 2
(Only game scheduled)
Pacific Coast League
Hollywood 7—Seattle 5
i (Only game scheduled)
Armed Services
Com. to Inspect
Alaska Defenses
WASHINGTON, VP)—A special
five or six-man House Armed
Services subcommittee will fly to
Alaska to inspect proposed secret
construction there aimed at streng
thening the country’s frontier
nearest Russia.
The group is scheduled to leave
Aug. 31 and return Sept. 10 or 11.
Authorization for the projects
was contained in the $5,678,000,
000 military construction bill
passed by the House recently.
While there the group will in
spect other military installations.
Presidential Blast
Economic Controls
Gets Fast Action
WASHINGTON, (^—President
Truman’s delayed blast at what
ahe called the three “worst pro
visions” of the new economic con
trols law has touched off a series
of explosive moves in Congress.
Three Republican senators, Fer
guson (Mich), Nixon (Calif), and
Walker (Idaho), accepted Mr. Tru
man’s tartly-worded economic
message to Congress yeesterday as
a political challenge.
Expressing doubt that the Presi
dent sincerely wanted controls
enforced, they quickly introduced
a bill to repeal the three pro
vision the President disliked.
The Senate Banking Committee,
after a hurriedly-called and re
portedly heated closed-door meet
ing, agreed to public hearings
next Thursday and Friday on the
repeal proposals.
Opening of International
Airport At Anchorage
Scheduled For October
ANCHORAGE, (/P)—Opening of
the new $11,500,000 International
Airport here is scheduled early
in October, A. A. Lample an
nounced yesterday.
Lample, administrator of public
airports for the Civil Aeronautics
Administration, said construction
was proceeding as rapidly as pos
sible so airlines may evacuate fa
cilities at Elmendorf Air Force
base which are badly needed by
the Air Force.
Originally scheduled to begin
operations Aug. 15, International
Airport construction has been de
layed repeatedly by a lag in the
delivery of materials.
A temporary passenger office
being erected is expected to be
complete by the time operations
begin in October. Work on per
manent administration buildings
should be completed in the next
construction season.
Canadians To Introduce
Jet Powered Transports
On Trans-Pacific Routes
OTTAWA, (IP)—Jet aircraft will
be introduced soon on the Can
adian Pacific Airlines’ trans-Pa
cific routes, John Baldwin, chair
man of the Canadian Air Trans
port board said yesterday. No de
cision has yet been reached on
whether jet planes will be used
on domestic airlines, he said.
Only Slight Ray of
Hope Remains For
Korea Truce Talks
TOKYO, f/P)—Only a tiny ray
of hope remained today that Kor
ean truce talks might be resumed.
If they break down completely,
the United • Nations ground com
mander said his troops will go
back to fighting “with hate and
eagerness.”
“We feel very confident we can
whip the enemy in the present
battle area,” Gen. James A. Van
Fleet said at his Eighth Army
headquarters.
Officers searched through a new
message from top communists for
an indication that they might
want to resume the Kaesong ar
mistice talks which they broke off
abruptly Thursday. It was in this
harshly worded message they
found a ray of hope.
The protest, formally adjourn
ing negotiations, was based on the
charge an Allied plane bombed
Kaesong, narrowly missing Red
truce delegates—a charge dubbed
by President Truman as a “new
communist masquerade” contain
ing “no truth.”
The message said:
“It is our hope that the armis
tice negotiations will proceed
smoothly and that a just and rea
sonable agreement acceptable to
both sides will be reached.”
But, it continued, because of
“t h e deliberately murderous
bombing” the Reds declared “the
meeting adjourned as from Aug
ust 23” to wait for Ridgway “to
take responsible action with re
gard to this serious provocation
by your side.”
Gen. Mac Arthur Calls For
'Adequate Security Forces’
Protect Japan from Attack
NEW YORK, (/P) — General
Douglas MacAfthur, in a letter to
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru
Yoshida, has called for “adequate
security forces” to protect Japan
against the threat of outside at
tack.
The letter, written Aug. 20 and
made public today, also predicts
that the Japanese nation, under
the terms of the peace treaty, will
join the free world in combatting
communism.
MacArthur’s letter was in re
sponse to a July note from the
prime minister which expressed
i gratitude for the general’s efforts
in behalf of an early peace treaty
for Japan.
Senate Assessment Work
Bill Dies In House—Dead
Line Remains At July 31
Senator Howard Lyng is in re
ceipt of a letter from Senator
Joseph O’Mahoney, chairman of
the Committee on Interior and
Insular Affairs, stating that al
though the bill providing for the
extension of annual assessment
work until Nov. 1, and changing
the assessment work year to end
Nov. 1 rather than July 1, was
favorably reported by his com
mittee and passed the Senate, the
House committee considered the
legislation but failed to act. As
a result, the bill died, and
the requirement for the work to
be completed by July 1st, 1951
remains the law.