List of accidents and incidents involving military aircraft (1940–1942)
This is a list of notable accidents and incidents involving military aircraft grouped by the year in which the accident or incident occurred. Not all of the aircraft were in operation at the time. For more exhaustive lists, see the or the or the . 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.1940
;5 January :The early models of the Henschel Hs 129 suffer from heavy stick forces, amongst other problems, and on this date the Hs 129 V2 is destroyed when it fails to pull out of a dive.;6 January
;10 January: The Mechelen Incident, also known as the Mechelen affair, was an event during the Phoney War in the first stages of World War II. A German Messerschmitt Bf 108 Taifun, D-NFAW, piloted by Major Erich Hoenmanns, 52, base commander of Loddenheide airfield, near Münster with an officer, Major Helmuth Reinberger, on-board carrying the plans for Fall Gelb, a German attack on the Low Countries, becomes lost and crash-lands in neutral Belgium near Vucht, in the modern-day municipality of Maasmechelen. This prompts an immediate crisis in the Low Countries and amidst the French and British authorities, whom the Belgians notify of their discovery; however the crisis abates relatively quickly once the dates mentioned in the plans pass without incident. It has been argued that the incident led to a major change in the German attack plan, but this hypothesis has also been disputed.
;3 February:US Army Air Corps Chief of Staff Gen. Henry H. Arnold's personal staff transport, Northrop A-17AS, 36–350, c/n 290, 3-seat command transport, written off in accident this date.
;3 February
;10 February
;15 February : Hawker Hector army co-operation biplane, the end of the Hawker Hart line, K9731, 'ZR-N', of No. 613 Squadron RAF, suffers engine problem on take-off from RAF Odiham, buries nose in an earthen berm.
;20 February
;11 March
;3 April :Pilot Lt. James W. Phelps. Jr. is killed while engaged in wargames near Cleveland, Ohio, when his Seversky P-35, 36-399, of the 94th Pursuit Squadron, 1st Pursuit Group, from Selfridge Field, Michigan, comes down hard.
;5 April
;7 April
;11 April
;16 April
;24 April
;27 April
;9 May
;26 May :As the British Expeditionary Force retreats to the French coast in the face of German advances, a flight of obsolescent Hawker Hector army co-operation biplanes of No. 613 Squadron RAF is dispatched from RAF Hawkinge at 0950 hrs., each armed with 2 X 120 lb. general purpose bombs, to support the Calais garrison trapped in the town's Citadel. Over the channel, Plt. Off. Bernard Brown, flying Hector K8111, with gunner LAC R. V. Brown, test-fires his front gun but after a few rounds the muzzle explodes, holing his fuel tank. He jettisons his bombs and attempts to return to Hawkinge, but runs out of fuel and force-lands on Herne Bay golf course.
;1 June
;7 June
;10 June :An ex-U.S. Navy Curtiss SBC-4 Helldiver being flown from the Curtiss plant at Buffalo to an intermediate stop at Albany, New York, crashes in bad weather near Mariaville Lake late this date, killing pilot Allan B. Lullman, of St. Louis. The airframe, one of 50 slated for delivery to France, was en route to Canada for overseas shipment out of Halifax aboard the French aircraft carrier. The fall of France before delivery diverts Béarn to Forte du France, Martinique, Lesser Antilles, where she rides out the first part of the war. The 112 aircraft she carries are put ashore where they go to ruin.
;17 June :Two twin-engine Douglas B-18A Bolo bombers, 37-576, piloted by 1st Lt. P. Burlingame, and 37-583, flown by 2d Lt. R. M. Bylander, of the 9th Bomb Group, were flying out of Mitchel Field, New York, on a training exercise. While maneuvering at 2,500 feet, one plane passed too close under the other and the two collided. Fuel, metal, glass and other debris rained down onto newly built homes in Bellerose, New York, killing all 11 crew on board. One woman, inside a home set afire, succumbed to burn injuries the next day.
;21 June
;27 June
;29 June
;30 June
;9 July
;11 July:On its fifth test flight, the prototype Vought XF4U-1 Corsair, BuNo 1443, runs low on fuel, Vought test pilot Boone Guyton attempts landing on rain-slicked fairway of the Norwich, Connecticut golf course, crashes into woods, flips over, slides into tree stump, comes to rest in ravine with wing and empennage torn off, propeller damage, but pilot unhurt. Vought rebuilds wreck to airborne condition in two months.
;Night of 22/23 July
;6 August
;8 August
;13 August
;26 August
;28 August
;29 August
, NAS Pensacola, Florida, after 50 years in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast.
;30 August
;5 September
;13 September
;19 September
;20 September
;29 September
;30 September: Two Messerschmitt Bf 109Es of II./JG 2 collide on take-off from Octeville, France, killing both pilots.
;Mid-October: A hangar fire aboard HMS Illustrious, which damages or destroys several Fairey Swordfish, forces postponement of an attack on the Regia Marina at Taranto, originally planned to take place on 21 October, Trafalgar Day, until the night of 11–12 November, now known as the Battle of Taranto.
;18 October
;10 November :Three die in the crash of North American O-47A, 37–320, of the 1st Observation Squadron, based at Marshall Field, Fort Riley, Kansas, when it strikes a hillside 10 miles S of Centerville, Alabama, in a rainstorm and burns. Piloted by Lt. Richard R. Wilson, assigned at Fort Riley, the other victims are Lt. Benjamin F. Avery, of Aurora, New York, and Pvt. G. A. Catlin, assigned at Maxwell Field, Alabama. The flight left Candler Field at Atlanta at 1545 hrs. bound for Maxwell Field at Montgomery. "N. B. Poe, who lives two miles from the crash scene, pulled the three bodies from the burning wreckage and called air corps officials at Maxwell field , Ala."
;16 November
;19 November
;20 November
;21 November
;6 December
;13 December : Two Northrop Nomad Mk. Is, of No. 3 Training Command RCAF, ex-USAAC Northrop A-17As, 93 of which were originally purchased by France but taken up by Great Britain after the Germans overran the continent in November 1940, with 32 transferred to Canada, collide in a blizzard whilst on a search and rescue mission for a third missing Nomad. One airframe, 3521, along with the remains of her crew, is discovered in Lake Muskoka, near Bracebridge, Ontario, by divers of the Ontario Provincial Police in July 2010. "A subsequent dive by the Royal Canadian Navy's Fleet Diving Unit in October, 2012 saw the recovery of the two crewmen, RCAF pilot LAC Ted Bates and RAF pilot Flt.Lt. Pete Campbell, their personal effects, and three.303 machine guns." On 30 October 2014, recovery of the remarkably intact airframe, although in five major pieces, was begun by the National Air Force Museum of Canada, at Trenton, Ontario, where it is anticipated that the rare aircraft will undergo a full restoration. The aircrew received "a proper military funeral, which their families held in Guelph, Ontario," on 13 September 2013. The crew of the other Nomad involved in this accident, 3512, were Sergeant L. Francis and William J. P. Gosling. "Nomad 3512 and its pilot and co-pilot were located shortly after the crash." They were looking for Nomad 3503, flown solo by L.A.C. Clayton Peder Hopton, who is buried at Cabri, Saskatchewan. The wreckage of 3503 found in a swamp five miles SE of Camp Borden, Ontario, on 14 December.
;16 December
;18 December
;19 December :North American Harvard II, RCAF 2722, c/n 65-2455, on a delivery flight to Moose Jaw, Canada, flown by North American Aviation ferry pilot Clyde L. "Bud" Hussey, 30, goes missing near Kingston, California, on the Mojave Desert, out of a flight of four aircraft, between Palmdale, California, and Las Vegas, Nevada. After departing Palmdale at 0730 hrs., the flight encounters clouds and fog east of Baker, and after clearing Mountain Pass, the other pilots notice that Hussey is no longer in the formation. When he fails to arrive at Las Vegas, he is posted as missing. An extensive search for the yellow-painted aircraft turns up nothing until 16 January 1942, when cowboy Pat Frank, rounding up cattle for the Williams Ranch, discovers the wreckage in the Ivanpah Valley. Apparently, the pilot had followed the wrong road and flew into rising ground of "the cloud-obscured east flank of the rugged Ivanpah Mountains."
;29 December 1940
;31 December
1941
;1941;5 January
;7 January
;16 January :Douglas B-18A Bolo, 37-523, of the 73d Bombardment Squadron, 17th Bombardment Group, departs McChord Field, Washington, at 1020 hrs., on a training flight to the Muroc bombing range in the Mojave Desert of California, with seven on board. When it fails to make a scheduled stop at McClellan Field, Sacramento, California, concern was raised that it was down, somewhere north of the California state line. "The most definite report came tonight from B. M. Oyster, employment and personnel manager of the Weyerhaeuser Timber Co., who came personally to McChord field to relate the story. Oyster said a timber crew foreman reported that a big plane appeared directly over the heads of a startled logging crew, in the Toutle river area, out of a cloud bank and barely skimmed the tops of 200-foot high trees." Before they could recover from their surprise or definitely identify the plane, it disappeared into another cloud bank. "Oyster informed officers that the Toutle river forks near the point, and continued flight up either bank would have meant disaster at the level at which the plane was last seen, flying southward. One fork leads towards Mt. St. Helens, a 9,000 foot peak, and the other ends in a deep ravine." Hindered by bad weather and poor visibility, the air search is suspended after two weeks, until spring. Finally, on 3 February, two civilians notify the Army that they have discovered the wrecked bomber just below the summit of Deschutes Peak, in the Snoqualmie National Forest, ~eight miles NW of Morton, Washington. "Harry Studhalter, 28, and Tom Harper, 39, woodsmen, said they sighted the wreckage on the 'little Rockies lookout' near Huckleberry mountain, in the foothills of Mt. Rainier, through binoculars." The wreck site is reached and bodies recovered on 4 February. A flight chronometer indicates that the crash occurred at 1051 hrs. Killed are 1st Lt. Robert M. Krummes, 27, Boise, Idaho, pilot; 2d Lt. Charles Thomas Nielson, 22, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, co-pilot; 2d Lt. John E. Geis, 27, Seattle, Washington, navigator; Sgt. Paul L. Maas, 25, Quincy, Illinois, bombardier; Sgt. Leo H. Neitling, 28, Scio, Oregon, radio operator; T/Sgt. Hearn A. Davis, 30, Tacoma, Washington, flight engineer; and 1st Lt. Lewis E. Mackay, 27 Lincoln, Nebraska, passenger.
;29 January
;Post-January
;4 February
;5 February
;6 February
;8 February
;20 February : RAF Lockheed Hudson III, T9449, one of five on a delivery flight to England, departs Gander, Newfoundland, at 1958 hrs., but over the Atlantic Ocean, ~50 miles from Gander, the oil supply to the starboard engine fails. Pilot, Captain Joseph Mackey, attempts to shut down the engine and feather the propeller but finds that it will not feather. While attempting a return to the departure airport the port engine suffers the same failure. Aircraft crashes into trees on the side of Seven Mile Pond, ~16 km from Musgrave Harbour, killing navigator William Bird and radio operator William Snailham. Passenger Sir Frederick Banting, Nobel Laureate, and one of the two co-discoverers of insulin, suffers fatal injuries, dying the next day. Wreckage sighted from the air on 25 February and Capt. Mackey rescued by a party from Musgrave Harbour. In 1990, the wreckage is airlifted to Musgrave Harbour and placed in Banting Memorial Park, and in 1991 the Banting Interpretation Centre is built, with another Hudson displayed near T9449's remnants.
;22 February
;25 February
;28 February :"SAN DIEGO, Calif., Feb. 28, - Failing to free himself from the training plane he was piloting when it went into a spin, James Spillman, 23, army air corps cadet flyer stationed at Lindbergh field, died in a crash today six miles north of San Diego. William E. Clark, civilian instructor, leaped to safety in a parachute after ordering Spillman to leave the plane. Clark said that he stayed in the ship until he saw that it could not be brought out of the spin." Ryan PT-20A Recruit, 40-2409, c/n 347, operated by the Ryan School, San Diego, crashed at Kearny Mesa, San Diego.
;4 March
;6 March :"Langley Field, Va. March 6 – An Army bomber on a training flight crashed in to the shallow waters adjacent to Langley Field today, killing the pilot, 2d Lieut. Barnard P. Smith Jr., 20, of Bartow, Florida. Boats reached the wreckage of the Martin B-10 ship and the body was extricated within a few minutes, but Smith was apparently killed by the impact of his plane with the water." B-10M, 34–91, c/n 622, of the 3d Observation Squadron, stalled and spun in into the Back River.
;6 March :"Honolulu, Hawaii, March 6 – First Lieut. Brewster Ward, 25 years old, of Buffalo, N.Y., was killed today as his pursuit ship crashed and burned near Haleiwa field, in northern Oahu Island. Ward was based at Wheeler field here. The widow, Barbara, and a son, Brewster Jr., live here." Ward was flying Curtiss P-36A Hawk, 38–75, when he crashed.
;9 March : At around 7.30 am a Messerschmitt Bf 110 was attempting to shoot a bus that was en route to Rabat from Nadur on the island of Gozo. In doing so the pilot found himself in a difficult position to maneuver his aircraft away from the oncoming cliff and the plane disintegrated on impact killing both crewmembers on board. Despite this none of the bus passengers were reported injured. This was the first plane crash on the island of Gozo.
;21 March
;24 March
;1 April :Lockheed Hudson NR-X flown by 220 squadron set off from R.A.F. St Eval, Cornwall in the early morning just after midnight. It was transporting one of the first radar for aircraft. It ran out of fuel during the night and crashed outside Maillé, France. Crew, including 755779 Sgt. R. E. Griffiths, survived the crash and found shelter with a family in the town but were later captured. Pilot name was Bob Milton. Co-pilot name was Sgt. Houghton.
;16 April
;16 April
;17 April
;5 May
;7 May
;10 May
;14 May
;17 May :A storm line with "cyclonic winds and torrential rains" over Ohio forces down two Air Corps planes within fifteen minutes at widely dispersed locations, killing seven crew. Beechcraft AT-7, 41-1147, c/n 439, of the 55th Support Squadron, Barksdale Field, Louisiana, piloted by Robert Sonenfield, on a routine navigation flight to Cleveland, strikes a hill eight miles N of Nelsonville, near Carbon Hill, killing all five aboard. A quarter hour later, North American AT-6 Texan, 40-2159, c/n 59-1985, from Bolling Field, Washington, D.C., crashes 100 miles W near Wilmington, killing two.. Dead in the AT-7 are Second Lts. William J. Wiandt, of Akron, James Criswell, of Pittsburgh, Robert L. Brown, of Salt Lake City and Denver, Sonenfield, of Lakewood, Ohio, and Sgt. John H. Davis, of Shreveport, Louisiana. Davis' body is found at noon 17 May amidst the widely spread wreckage. Killed in the AT-6 are Capts. Ralph A. Van Derau, of Dayton, and John C. Stanley, of Ashland, Kentucky.
;17 May :A Grumman F4F Wildcat, '6-F-2', of VF-6, aborts landing aboard USS Saratoga off the San Diego coast when Ens. H. E. Tennes, Chicago, cannot extend the undercarriage. He ditches in San Diego Bay. Flotation bags deploy to keep the fighter from sinking and it and the pilot are rescued by a Navy crash barge.
;29 May :HMS Sheffield, operating in the North Atlantic following action with the German battleship Bismarck, catapults two Supermarine Walrus off at 1334, one for an anti-submarine patrol, the other to drop a message aboard flagship HMS Renown, then proceed to Gibraltar to fetch mail, and was, for this reason, carrying as passenger Regulating Petty Officer J. W. B. Marjoram, in addition to crew Lieutenant B. A. H. Brooks, Lieutenant A. Nedwill, and Leading Aircraftman J. A. Saville. Upon reaching Renown four minutes later, pilot Brooks flew over the forecastle, "and then, for reasons only to be guessed at, decided to make a low pass over the stern. In doing so he steered through the hot gases rising from Renown's funnels. The Walrus was flung over by the hot up-blast, out of control, and fell, to strike the stern awning tripod and then crash into the sea. Only RPO Marjoram was picked up by the destroyer Wishart, unfortunately to die of his injuries. His body was taken onto Gibraltar, reached by Force H at 1900." Wrote Sheffield's Captain Charles Larcom, "A young lieutenant, not fourteen days on board, took my aircraft to drop messages on Renown, and cutting a dash, as I guessed he would, killed himself, another young officer and two men. It is too much at once." Sheffield had lost three crew and five seriously injured while duelling with Bismarck.
;Early summer
;2 June
;8 June
;16 June
;21 June
;22 June
;29 June
;2 July
;3 July
;3 July
;9 July – 10 July
;15 July : A Heinkel He.111 bomber, DA+AZ, of Luftwaffe flight school FFS 12, goes out of control while returning to Prague Ruzyně Airport, Prague, Czechoslovakia, and crashes into a house at 975 Novotny Street in the village of Jeneč. Airframe destroyed. Two pilots, a student and instructor Marahrens Hans Otto Herbst, killed, but sole occupant of the house, railwayman Mr. Rufr, Spice, survives. Luftwaffe pays for identical rebuild of the destroyed home.
;23 July :While deployed to Alpena, Michigan, for a gunnery exercise, Lt. James R. Taylor of the 71st Pursuit Squadron, flying Lockheed YP-38 Lightning, 39-695, of the 27th Pursuit Squadron, 1st Pursuit Group, suffers a port engine fire on takeoff from Selfridge Field which causes his fighter to strike pine trees. The pilot dies of his injuries a few days later. 71st FS history incorrectly lists accident date as 11 May 1941.
;7 August
;21 August
;27 August
;4 September;
;3 October
;14 October
;20 October
;21 October
;25 October :Luftwaffe experten Hauptmann Franz von Werra takes off from Katwijk, Netherlands, in Bf 109F-4 W. Nr. 7285 of I./JG 53 on a practice flight. His aircraft suffers a complete engine failure and crashes into the North Sea N of Vlissingen. Werra is presumed killed, though his body is never found. Werra is generally regarded as the only Axis prisoner of war to succeed in escaping from Canadian custody and returning to Germany. Werra's story was the subject of the 1957 film The One That Got Away starring Hardy Krüger as Franz von Werra. The film was based on a book by Kendall Burt and James Leasor published in 1956.
;2 November
;4 November
;11 November
;17 November
;17 November :Gregory Boyington, checking out in Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk, P-8102, of the American Volunteer Group, at Kyedaw, Burma, overrevs the engine while recovering from a potential ground-loop upon landing, doing unsuspected internal damage to the Allison V-1710 engine. When pilot Jim Cross takes it up later in the morning, the engine throws a rod and begins burning, and he force lands in a clearing. The P-40 is written off and used for spare parts.
;19 November
;22 November
;26 November
;28 November
;30 November : The Japanese submarine I-10, patrolling in the South Sea region in advance of the attack on Pearl Harbor, launches a Yokosuka E14Y floatplane on a night air sortie of Suva Bay in the Fiji Islands. It reports sighting no enemy in the harbor but then fails to return to the sub. The I-10 searches for three days but fails to find the scout.
;11 December
;12 December
;18 December
;21 December
;21 December
;30 December
1942
;January;6 January :Beechcraft F-2 Expeditor, 40-686, c/n 344, based at Felts Field, Spokane, Washington, departs Gray Army Airfield, Fort Lewis, Washington, on a morning flight with three aboard and vanishes. The flight contacted Medford, Oregon, at 1049 hrs., and at 1053 hrs. announced a change in the flight plan. Nothing more was heard. "A ground searching party and four aerial searching parties combed the country as far south as Redding, Calif., but the heavy snowfall apparently concealed all traces of the plane at the time." The wreck is discovered 15 miles SE of Ashland, Oregon, near the California-Oregon border, on 9 June 1942, and reported by George E. Miller, Oregon state fire patrolman stationed at Ashland. He makes his way to Yreka, California, to report the find and said the plane had apparently struck a peak in the Siskiyou Mountains head-on. Geiger Field officials identify the victims as: First Lieutenant Raymond Ansel Stockwell, 39, whose wife resides at Garden Springs Terrace in Spokane; Technical Sergeant Paul W. Stone, son of Calvin H. Stone, Bayview, Texas; and Technical Sergeant Randolph Jones, son of Joseph E. Jones, 2405 Connor Street, Joplin, Missouri. "Lieutenant Stockwell was identified as a well-known Northwest and Alaska flyer, who had enlisted in the army as a private, taken flight training and received his commission in September 1941." Wreck is surveyed on 29 September 1942.
;13 January
;14 January
;16 January: A Douglas TBD-1 Devastator, BuNo 0335, '6-T-14', of Torpedo Squadron 6, from USS Enterprise, piloted by Chief Harold F. Dixon, becomes lost while on patrol, and ditches in the South Pacific when fuel is exhausted. A search the next day fails to spot them. Dixon and his two crew, bombardier Anthony J. Pastula and gunner Gene Aldrich, survive for 34 days in a small rubber raft with no stored food or water, before drifting ashore on the Pukapuka atoll. Dixon is awarded the Navy Cross for "extraordinary heroism, exceptional determination, resourcefulness, skilled seamanship, excellent judgment and highest quality of leadership."
;29 January
;8 February: Reich Minister for Armaments and Ammunition Fritz Todt is killed when the Heinkel He 111 he is aboard explodes and crashes shortly after departing the Rangsdorf Wolfsschanze airfield near Rastenburg in East Prussia. It has been suggested that he was the victim of an assassination conspiracy but nothing was ever proven.
;10 February
;25 February :"Lieutenant Clark of the army air corps, flying an army pursuit plane, made a forced landing on the farm of Stephen Shirley in the Oakway community about 12:30 last Thursday afternoon, February 25," reported The Keowee Courier, Walhalla, South Carolina, on 5 March 1942. "The plane was slightly damaged and the pilot suffered no injury except being jarred lightly as the plane 'pan-caked' onto the cotton field. The cause of the forced landing was not disclosed and the mission of the flight was not given as other than practice maneuvers. Friday morning army wrecker service from the air base at Savannah was on the site to dismantle the plane for shipment back to the base for repairs. The Oconee home guard stood guard duty on the spot of the crash from an hour or so after the mishap until the plane was removed Friday." About 30 different men of Company G of the Oconee Home Guard stood guard duty during the approximate 24-hour vigil. The Aviation Archeological Investigation & Research database lists Curtiss P-40C, 41-13382, of the 65th Pursuit Squadron, 57th Pursuit Group, out of Trumbull Field, Groton, Connecticut, flown by Thomas W. Clark, as suffering a forced landing near Seneca, South Carolina, in Oconee County, suffering moderate damage on 26 February 1942, which, in this case, was the date of the airframe's recovery. Repaired, this airframe would go to reclamation at Patterson Army Airfield, Ohio, on 12 May 1945. Captain Clark would later score four aerial kills with the 57th Fighter Group in the Mediterranean Theatre, two on 26 October 1942, and one each on 13 January and 26 February 1943. In a related story, a man whose automobile was halted by the Oconee guard on Thursday night, fled on foot through a nearby cotton field after being told to halt. The vehicle was found to have 90 gallons of illegal liquor concealed in its trunk, which was packed in 15 cases containing six gallons each in half-gallon fruit jars. The county officers were notified immediately. "The booze was confiscated by the officers and a search for the missing driver was begun." The man's hat was found about 100 yards from the road on a terrace of the field.
;18 March
;23 March
;25 March
;26 March
;26 March
;27 March :While Task Force 39 pushes through heavy North Atlantic seas near Sable Island en route to Scapa Flow, Rear Admiral John W. Wilcox, Jr., task force commander, goes overboard from USS Washington and is lost. USS Wasp launches four SB2U-2 Vindicator dive bombers to assist in the search, but one, BuNo 1362, of VS-71, piloted by Ens. Edwin S. Petway, crashes astern of Wasp while attempting to land, killing its two-man crew. The admiral's lifeless body is spotted briefly but not recovered.
;3 April
;6 April :Boeing B-17B Flying Fortress, 38-214, of the 12th Bomb Squadron, 39th Bomb Group, Davis-Monthan Field, Arizona, suffers engine failure with one bursting into flame, the bomber crashing into the desert 22 miles SE of Tucson, killing all five crew. "The dead and their addresses, as announced by Col. Lowell H. Smith, commander of Davis-Monthan air corps base, who said the tragedy was due to 'engine failure and fire in the air,' were: First Lieut. Donald W. Johnson, the pilot, of Dunning, Neb.; Sgt. Laurel D. Larsen, Minkcreek, Idaho; Pvt. Herbert W. Dunn, Mifflintown, Pa.; Pvt. Emerson L. Wallace, Philipsburg, Pa.; Pvt. Leo W. Thomas, Lemoore, California. Second Lieut. Sidney L. Fouts, of Santa Rosa, California, and Sgt. William F. Regan, of Dunmore, Pa., parachuted to safety, suffering only minor injuries and shock, the air base said."
;6 April :"Honolulu, April 6 - Army authorities announced today that an army bomber crashed and burned last night with a loss of at least four lives. Four bodies had been recovered and it was feared there were additional victims." Boeing B-17E Flying Fortress, 41-2443, piloted by Ward Cox, Jr., out of Wheeler Field, crashes into cliffs of Mount Keahiakahoe near the Nu'uanu Pali in Hawaii while returning from antisubmarine patrol.
;6 April :"San Diego, April 6 - Ensign Willard E. Norval, 26, Galesburg, Ill., and James F. Crow Jr., 18, apprentice seaman from White Deer, Texas, were killed today in the crash of their two-seater navy plane near Bonita, 10 miles southeast of San Diego."
;8 April :An instructor and an aviation cadet are killed near Bakersfield, California, this date, when their Vultee BT-13, 41-9665, of the 327th School Squadron, Minter Field, crashes at Dunlap Auxiliary Field. KWF are Lt. William B. Raabe, and cadet Irel W. Crowe.
;22 April
;23 April
;23 April :"Seattle, May 12 - The 13th naval district staff headquarters today announced the names of next of kin of the four men killed and the three injured in an airplane accident in Alaska which was announced April . Among the dead was Ensign Glenn R. Van Bramer, R. J. Van Bramer, father, R. F. D. No. 2, Billings, Mont." A Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina crashes while attempting a downwind take-off at Dutch Harbor, Alaska. "Plane appeared to get off three times, but each time settled back, struck sand spit, bounced up, and crashed on land and burned. Cause believed to have been a combination of diagonal downwind take-off and failure of lift due to ice on top of wings. Pilot:Ens.Frederick A. Smith/Killed, Ens.Glenn R. Van Bramer/Killed, Ens.John B. Carrol/Killed, Amm2c.Alvin F. Zettell/Seriously inj, Sea2c.Gifford A. King/Seriously inj, and Rm3c.Ralph Mitchell, Jr/Minor inj."
;29 April
;May
;May
;3 May:Three Bristol Blenheim Mk. IVs, Z7513, Z7610, and T2252, of No. 15 Squadron SAAF, detached to support Allied ground forces garrisoning the oasis at Kufra in Libya, become lost while on a familiarisation flight and land in the Libyan Desert. They are not found until 11 May by which time only one of twelve crew survive. Z7610 and T2252 are flown out in May but damaged Z7513 is abandoned in place.
;6 May :"Tacoma, May 7 - Rudolph Erlichman, widely known Seattle and Tacoma investment broker, was killed in an airplane accident in the royal Canadian air force, former business associates said here today. Details of the accident were not disclosed, but it was understood that Ehrlichman, former partner of the firm Drumheller, Ehrlichman & White, was one of eight flyers that lost their lives in an accident near, St. Johns, Newfoundland." Lockheed Hudson, RAF N7346, c/n B14L-1742, diverted to RCAF and serialled 761, of a detachment from No. 11 Squadron, departs RCAF Station Torbay, Newfoundland, at either ~1500 hrs., or 1742 hrs., on a ferry flight to Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, with four crew and four passengers aboard. On lift off one or both engines sputter and backfire and the aircraft sinks, but then the engines surge and the Hudson rises to 100 feet whereupon a left bank, characteristic of a side slip, develops and deepens, the plane sinks, drags the port wing tip, and cartwheels into a fiercely burning inverted pile of wreckage. The Board of Inquiry cites four causes:
;7 May :"Montreal, Que., May 7 - The royal air force ferry command announced today that three men were killed in the crash of a Lockheed plane making a forced landing at Bradore Wharf, Que. The dead were listed as Leon Segal, Los Angeles, captain of the bomber, Pilot Officer James Watson, R. C. A. F., of Toronto, navigator, Martino M. Paggi, Los Angeles, radio operator."
;20 May :"Montgomery, May 23 - Gunter field announced today that at least six British cadets were killed when their planes crashed in a storm Wednesday night, and that a seventh plane and its pilot were missing."
;23 May : Lt. Virgil E. Holman, Rochester, Minnesota, dies in hospital on 24 May of burns sustained during the forced landing of Lockheed P-38F-1-LO Lightning, 41-7554, c/n 222-5681, from March Field, California, after engine failure, near Greenup, 16 miles W of Russell, Kentucky, this date.
;23 May :North American B-25 Mitchell, 40-2173, c/n 62-2842, of the 390th Bomb Squadron, 42d Bomb Group, McChord Field, Washington, crashes, explodes and burns at the base during a routine flight, killing five crew. The Army Air Force said that this was the sixth bomber crash in the Pacific Northwest for the month of May, with a death toll of 30. Dead are Lt. Col. Eugene Wall, Atmore, Alabama; 1st Lt. Charles E. Daly, Tacoma, Washington; M/Sgt. Delana A. Shephiard, 56, Frazier, Montana; Cpl. Guinn N. Murdock, 19, Denton, Texas; and PFC Walter F. Rudesill, 20, Hot Springs, Arkansas.
;24 May :Lockheed C-40D, 42-22249, c/n 1273, ex-NC21770, Air Transport Command, Trans-Atlantic Sector, Bolling Field, Washington, D.C., crashes in swamp one mile NE of Howe Brook Mountain, NW of Houlton, Maine, during "routine" flight out of Houlton Army Air Base, after possible disorientation in poor visibility, killing all six aboard. Accident is first reported by forestry lookout station observer Alex Bouher. A detail of men under Maj. F. E. Lodge is dispatched to search the wooded area. KWF are 1st Lt. J. D. Fransiscus; Lt. Col. Louis S. Gimbel, New York City; 1st Lt. Herback; S/Sgt. Frederick Taylor; 2d Lt. Earl R. Wilkinson; and Lt. Col. Clarence A. Wright. SOC 1 June 1942. This airframe was one of eleven civilian Lockheed Model 12A Electra Juniors impressed 14 March 1942 by the United States Army Air Force, with standard six-passenger interior. Surviving examples redesignated UC-40D in January 1943. The board of inquiry was unable to determine a cause, but listed weather and pilot inexperience under instrument conditions as factors. Lt. Col Gimbel, "who resided with his wife and two children at 163 East Seventy-eighth Street, New York City, was once an executive of the Saks Fifth Avenue and Gimbel stores. A graduate of Yale, he entered the Atlantic Ferry Service about six months ago and later transferred to the Army Air Corps. He was a son of the late Louis S. Gimbel and a cousin of Bernard F. Gimbel, President of Gimbel Brothers, Inc."
;24 May: Two Curtiss P-40F Warhawks, 41-13793 and 41-13798, of the 62d Fighter Squadron, 56th Fighter Group, out of Newark Metropolitan Airport, collide at 12,000 feet on Sunday afternoon over Englewood, New Jersey, and plunge into the residential community of Teaneck, six miles west of the George Washington Bridge. Both pilots bail out and no one on the ground is badly hurt. "One plane sheared off the back of a garage and burst into flames; the other buried itself nose first in a dirt street in an exclusive area a mile away, in full view of wide-eyed residents." Lt. Meade M. Brown, Louisville, Kentucky, flying 13798, lands in a swamp, while Lt. Louis Bowen, Champaign, Illinois, late of 13793, arrives on the front lawn of a home near Teaneck High School, suffering only cuts on the right leg. Falling wreckage damages a few homes.
;30 May: Pilot Officer Albert Hoffman, RCAF, Ritzville, Washington, is killed in Lockheed Hudson Mk. V, AM737, of No. 31 OTU, while attempting a single-engine landing at RCAF Camp Debert, Nova Scotia at 1415 hrs. "He had to go around again to avoid an aircraft on the runway, the Hudson went out of control and crashed into some woods at the aerodrome boundary at Debert." The other members of the crew were: Sgt. William Divers Earl, Observer, and Sgt. Arthur Charles Norris, Wireless Air Gunner. Both were seriously injured. Hudson AM737 to No. 4 Repair Depot for write off on 3 June 1942. Hoffman's body was accompanied to Ritzville by Captain T. C. Howland, flight commander, Camp Debert, and the 9 June funeral was overflown by a formation of Geiger Field aircraft.
;30 May : McChord Army Air Base officers today announced the death of 2d Lt. Peter A. Trick, in a fighter crash on the Fort Lewis reservation. He was flying Lockheed P-38E Lightning, 41-2036, of the headquarters squadron, 55th Fighter Group, when he suffered engine failure on takeoff.
;30 May: As Task Force 17 sorties from Pearl Harbor in preparation for the Battle of Midway, USS Yorktown flies aboard her patched-together air wing including VF-3 under Lieutenant Commander John S. "Jimmy" Thach. VF-3's executive officer, Lieutenant Commander Donald Lovelace, lands his Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat aboard Yorktown and taxis beyond the crash barrier. His inexperienced wingman, Ensign Robert Evans, comes in too high, misses the arresting wires, bounces once, floats over the crash barrier and his F4F-4 impacts on top of Lovelace's Wildcat, killing the XO. "After extricating Lovelace's body from the wreckage, both wrecked planes were unceremoniously shoved over the side, and landing operations continued." Lovelace, who had been scheduled for rotation back to the mainland and command of his own squadron, had opted to stay with VF-3 for this action specifically to pass along his experience to the body of untested new aviators of which Ensign Evans was one.
;31 May :"Bogota, Colombia, June 1. - Three United States air corps flyers and a Colombia air force officer were killed when their reconnaissance plane crashed yesterday in a gorge about 10 miles south of here. The American dead are: Major John P. Steward and Staff Sergeants Carlyle Lewis and Thomas H. Noble. The Colombia officer was Major Felix Quinones, The flyers were making the last flight on a photographic mission for the Colombian government from their Orinoco river base. The cause of the crash was not determined and an investigation is being made."
;1 June :Consolidated PBY-5 Catalina, BuNo 04439, of VP-43, returning to NAS Alameda after a night patrol, strikes mountains east of Half Moon Bay, California, between 2200 and 0000 hrs., killing seven of eight crew. Sole survivor, Ensign C. H. Apitz, 22, of Henderson, Minnesota, badly burned, cut, bruised, and in shock, walks eight to ten miles, reaching Half Moon Bay at 0400 hrs. Taken to Mills Memorial Hospital in San Mateo, Apitz could not say how he got clear but recalled watching the bomber burn. Amongst the dead was Seaman Kenneth Wayne Simmons, mother, Mrs. W. O. Simmons, Rt. 1, Pasco, Washington.
;3 June :Williams Field, Arizona, suffers its first fatal accident in the six months it has been open as an advanced training base when Curtiss-Wright AT-9-CS Fledgling, 41-5867, of the 333d School Squadron, crashes five miles NE of the base, apparently flown into the ground, killing John Clifford Eustice, 23, of Salt Lake City, Utah, and Irving C. Frank, 24, of Brooklyn, New York.
on 11 July 1942.
;3 June
;4 June :"San Rafael, Calif., June 5, - Fourteen army flyers died in the crash of a heavy bomber near here last night, the army said today. Flames consumed the wreckage when the plane hit a hilltop as the pilot circled for an emergency landing. The plane developed trouble soon after a takeoff and radioed nearby Hamilton field to clear a runway. The pilot circled toward the field. The big ship lost altitude and then dived into a hillside on the Herzog ranch, three miles northwest of Hamilton field. As it crashed great flames swept through the wreckage. Not a man escaped." Consolidated LB-30 Liberator, AL601, was destroyed.
;4 June :Pilot Dale Eugene Anderson escapes injury when he force lands Curtiss P-40-CU Warhawk, 39-289, of the 38th Fighter Squadron, 55th Fighter Group, out of Paine Field, Everett, Washington, ~three miles N of McChord Field, coming down about 40 feet off of the Pacific highway just S of Tacoma city center. "The plane passed over the tops of several automobiles on the busy highway. One driver, Charlie Mael, news stand operator at Fort Lewis, said the plane just missed his automobile, struck a ditch adjoining the highway and came to a stop a few feet from the road. Witnesses said the pilot walked away from the burning plane."
;4 June: During the Battle of Midway, USS Yorktown, slowed to 16 knots by previous battle damage, launches Grumman F4F Wildcat fighters in early afternoon to meet a second Japanese attack force of ten Kate torpedo bombers and their Zero fighter escort. "A twenty-two-year-old ensign with the unlikely name of Milton Tootle IV had barely cleared the bow in his takeoff and did not even have time to manipulate the hand crank to wind up his landing gear when he wheeled toward an attacking torpedo plane and shot it down with one long burst. When he pulled up, he was struck by the Yorktown's own antiair fire and crashed into the sea. His whole flight lasted about sixty seconds, but he got his bogey." Tootle was flying F4F-4, BuNo 5239 of VF-3.
;Post-4 June
;6 June :Several barrage balloons break free of their moorings in the Puget Sound area near Seattle, and soar over parts of northwest Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia, the dragging cables shorting out power lines, damaging houses, and knocking all but one radio station in Vancouver off the air. The army was working to trace those balloons not already found, and police in Vancouver captured one.
;7 June
;7 June
V9977, which crashed killing Alan Blumlein and several other key British radar technicians 7 June 1942.
;8 June
;8 June :"Fort Benning, Ga., June 8. - Three army flyers were killed today when bombs from their own plane smashed the ship during bombing practice over the Fort Benning reservation. Lieutenant Russell J. Hammargren said an army bomber from Atlanta was demolished in the air when a bomb struck another that had just left the plane. He identified the dead as Captain Morris Pelham of Anniston, Ala.; Lieutenant Raymond Manley, Brooklyn, and Corporal Ray Roland, Columbia, Iowa. Hammargren said the bombing planes usually dropped practice bombs in a salvo but that the plane involved in today's accident apparently was dropping the missiles one by one." Douglas A-20A Havoc, 40-163, of the 56th Bombardment Squadron, was actually flying from Hunter Army Airfield, Savannah, Georgia, when it was destroyed by the premature bomb explosion near Lawson Field.
;13 June : The army announces on 14 June the death of Private Alexander Evan Campbell, 23, of Fairfax, Virginia, in the late day crash of Schweizer TG-2-SW, 42-8724, on Deadman Dry Lake, near Twentynine Palms, California. Campbell was born at Rigby, Idaho.
;13 June : Lockheed P-38E Lightning, 41-2086, of the 37th Fighter Squadron, 55th Fighter Group, Paine Field, Washington, experiences engine failure on takeoff from Olympia Army Airfield, strikes St. Peter's Hospital, and burns in the street. Olympia firemen and hospital staff brave flames and exploding.50 caliber ammunition to pull pilot Ralph M. Edwards Jr. from the cockpit. Several firemen are treated for burns and Deputy Sheriff Ed Stearns is knocked to the pavement by an exploding shell fragment. Robert Hennesy, a military policeman, is also hospitalized after being thrown to the pavement when he contacts a power line broken by the falling plane. Stearns said that he had never seen such bravery as that of the firemen and Dr. Reed Ingham in saving the pilot, with "shells exploding all over the place." Edwards succumbed to his burns in hospital shortly after 1300 hrs.
;13 June : Second Lieutenant Roy D. Stone Jr., Monrovia, California, is killed in Lockheed P-38E Lightning, 41-2078, of the 38th Fighter Squadron, 55th Fighter Group, Paine Field, Everett, Washington, when he force lands after engine failure at Lakeview, crashes and burns five miles SW of McChord Field, and 15 miles SW of Tacoma.
;13 June :Consolidated PBY-5 Catalina, BuNo 04490, of VP-61, crashes on takeoff at Kodiak, Alaska, killing one crew. Underwing torpedo drops and runs but misses a ship and explodes between the docks.
;15 June :"Macleod, Alta., June 15, - Two Canadian bombers collided in the air northeast of Granum today, killing an undetermined number of Canadian air force flyers. The planes were in a formation." Avro Anson Mk. Is, 6528, and AX166, of No. 7 Service Flying Training School, RCAF Station Fort Macleod, collide at 0900 hrs. while practice formation flying, four miles N of Granum relief field. LAC O. E. Olsen killed in 6528, ex-RAF W2218, which is scrapped by No. 10 Repair Depot, struck off and reduced to spares and produce 12 March 1943. LAC Alexander John McLaren, 21, dies in AX166, scrapped by No. 10 Repair Depot, struck off on 27 November 1942.
;15 June :Following engine failure, 2nd Lt. James H. Mitchell, 23, of Cleveland, intentionally banks away from a hangar occupied by some 200 men in the noon hour in his Lockheed P-38D Lightning, 40-783, of the 83d Fighter Squadron, dragging a wingtip at Mills Field, south of San Francisco, resulting in a fatal wrecking of his fighter but saving all those who he might have hit. Only a crew chief is killed besides the pilot when he deliberately crashed his plane.
;16 June :Following return to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, after the Battle of Midway, the USS Enterprise air group undergoes reassignments and training. On this date, flying Douglas SBD-3 Dauntless, BuNo 03283, "Ensign Carl Pieffer of Scouting Six was scheduled for a regular training flight, including a visit to Kaneohe across the island. The start of his take-off run across the mat at Ford Island looked normal but before he could gain flying speed he inexplicably lost directional control. The SBD swerved violently left, then right, and as the crash sirens began to howl, tore off its entire tail section on a parked crane, became briefly airborne, skimmed across the perimeter road barely clearing a loaded station bus and crashed flaming, to a stop a hundred feet away. Neither Carl nor his rear-seatman made any move to escape the burning wreck and the busload of startled sailors ran to pull them out." The gasoline-fed fire then ignited the 500-pound bomb carried by the dive bomber, killing both crew, five would-be rescuers, and injuring 17 more, some critically. Joe Baugher lists the Dauntless as assigned to VB-3.
;18 June : Lt. jg. Ralph M. Rich is killed when, during a routine gunnery dive over NAS Kaneohe Bay, a wing tears off of Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat, BuNo 5184, of VF-3, at 5,000 feet. Rich had shot down a Japanese torpedo plane at the Battle of Midway. He was awarded the Navy Cross posthumously for his "capable and aggressive leadership" in the Midway battle, which enabled his attack group to "maintain continuous flight over enemy naval units, thereby assuring our dive bombers an unmolested approach." Two U.S. Navy ships have been named for him.
;19 June : Cadet Leon C. Harer, 21, Tacoma, Washington, departs Randolph Field, San Antonio, Texas, at 0020 hrs. in North American BT-9A, 36-120, c/n 19-77, of the 47th School Squadron, on a night navigation flight to Seguin, Luling, Lockhart, and San Marcos, and is missing when its fuel limits are reached. A pre-dawn search is launched, involving 18 aircraft along the cadet's projected course, and expanded at dawn to 150 miles in all directions. The cadet is the son of Lt. Col. L. G. Harer, Infantry. Wreckage is found two to four miles E of Seguin on 20 June.
;28 June : Lockheed A-29-LO Hudson, 41-23260, c/n 414-6025, allocated to the RAF as BW398 but not taken up; reallocated to the Chinese Air Force on 30 March 1942; on this date departs Patterson Field, Ohio, for delivery to Orlando Army Air Field, Florida, but crashes in a hayfield at Lebanon, Ohio, ~25 miles S of Dayton, killing all four crew. Capt. John Van Cleve, of the Patterson Field public relations office, said the victims were from Lowry Field, Colorado, and had been here for temporary training. The dead were identified as: 2d Lt. William K. Van Zandt, pilot; 2d Lt. Ralph A. Oehmman Jr., copilot; T/Sgt. S. R. Elder, and S/Sgt. Corder.
;30 June :The Sikorsky XPBS-1, BuNo 9995, hits a submerged log upon landing at NAS Alameda. Among its passengers was CINCPAC Admiral Chester W. Nimitz who suffered minor injuries. One member of the flight crew, Lieutenant Thomas M. Roscoe, died. The XPBS-1 sank and was lost.
;1 July :Ex-American Airlines Douglas DST, DST-217, c/n 1976, NC18144, requisitioned by the USAAF on 8 June 1942 as C-49E, 42-56093, assigned to the 4th Troop Carrier Squadron, 62d Troop Carrier Group, crashes into a hillside Victory Garden this date at mountainous Premier, in southern West Virginia, killing all 21 aboard. This was the date that the 62d TCG was reassigned from Kellogg Field, Michigan, to Florence Army Airfield, South Carolina, and the C-49E was en route to the base. Pilot Walter R. Faught had attempted several landing approaches at Cincinnati Municipal Lunken Airport and on the last had slammed into the runway with enough force to damage wings and control surfaces. Rather than land and check the airframe, he elects to continue onto Florence, amidst turbulent weather. The transport was sighted about noon at low altitude over Coalwood, ~five miles from Premier, and witnesses reported that it shed a wing at 500 feet as it came down, which may have been the elevators. Wreckage burns for two hours, but recovery of victims begins even before fire is out. Bodies of 19 passengers and two crew recovered.
;1 July :Consolidated LB-30 Liberator, AL527, of the 38th Bomb Squadron, 30th Bomb Group, flown by 1st Lt. Robert K. Murphy departs March Field, California, strikes the top of a low knoll two miles W of the field, and is destroyed in two explosions that initial reports describe as bombs going off. Officials said that this was a training flight, however, and that no bombs were loaded. Nine crew die.
;2 July: A Dornier Do 17M-1 crashes in Hansakollen in Maridalen, outside of Oslo, Norway. The Do 17 was heading to the airport at Gardermoen, but crashed into a mountainside, killing all three German aviators on board. They are buried at the German war cemetery at Alfaset. The wreck is well preserved and remains clearly visible, over 70 years after the accident.
;15 July
;30 July
;8 August
;8 August
;14 August
;16 August
;17 August
;17 August
;20 August
;23 August
;25 August
;30 August
;4 September
;10 September
;12 September
;15 September
;20 September : Lt. Burton W. Basten, pilot, of Placentia, California, is killed in the crash of Martin B-26A-1 Marauder, 41-7459, of the 474th Bomb Squadron, 335th Bomb Group, Barksdale Field, Louisiana, when the bomber suffers a stall/spin crash 4 miles W of Plain Dealing, Louisiana. Airframe condemned at Barksdale Field on 24 September. Basten is buried in Fullerton, California, on 26 September. He graduated from Redlands High School, Redlands, California.
;21 September : During flight back home from its bombing mission in Munich an Avro Lancaster Mk.I squadron code QR and serial number W4166 was shot down above Cochem in the night from 20 to 21 September 1942. The aircraft was hit high likely by a German Messerschmitt Bf 110 from the Nachtjagdgeschwader 4 based in Metz. All seven crewmembers were killed when the airplane all ablaze crashed down. The crewmembers were Sgt R.R.B.Owen RAAF KIA, Sgt T.Thompson KIA, P/O W.H.Donovan RCAF KIA, F/S J.O.Tuller RCAF KIA, Sgt D.T.McLean RAAF KIA, Sgt A.G.Sale KIA and Sgt P.J.Maxwell KIA. They were first buried honorably with a salute in the presence of German and English government representatives in Cochem, later the remains were brought to the Rheinberg War Cemetery, Coll. grave 9. H. 18-22, 9. H. 16, 9. H. 17. This aircraft was one of 450 Manchesters ordered from A.V.Roe Chadderton Jan. 1940 of which 207 were built as Lancaster Mk.1s, delivered from July 1942 to Nov. 1942 initially fitted with Merlin 20 engines. W4166 was delivered to 61 Squadron 31. August 1942. W4166 also took part in the key Raids against Bremen 13/14 Sep. 1942 and Essen 16/17 Sep. 1942. When lost this aircraft had only 23 flying hours.
;24 September : Eight fliers are killed, four officers and four cadet bombardiers, when their two Beechcraft AT-11 Kansans bombing trainers collide over a target and burn during training out of Williams Field, Arizona. The Williams Field public relations office said that a commercial transport sighted and reported the wreckage. The bombing range was about six miles SE of Florence, Arizona. Victims of the accident were identified as Lt. William P. Owen, 24, Magnolia, Arkansas; Lt. Donald J. Gibson, 24, Valley City, North Dakota; Lt. Robert T. Ross, 20, Port Huron, Michigan; Lt. William B. Shea, 23, Kansas City; Cadets Robert E. Coate, 19, Woonsocket, Rhode Island; Mathew F. Farrell, 25, Lynn, Massachusetts; Wilbur C. Harter, 24, Delaware, Ohio; and John H. Cwik, 27, Johnstown, Pennsylvania. AT-11, 41-27630, piloted Lt. Shea, and AT-11, 41-27620, piloted by Lt. Gibson, both of the 537th School Squadron, were the airframes involved.
;26 September : A USAAF Martin B-26B Marauder, 41-17767, of the 437th Bomb Squadron, 319th Bomb Group, out of Baer Field, Fort Wayne, Indiana, explodes in mid-air and crashes to earth two miles N of Rimer, Ohio, killing its crew of seven. Public relations officers at Baer Field said that the victims were: 2d Lt.s Eugene L. Newton, Kansas City, Missouri,| pilot, and Fred Bice, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, co-pilot; Tech/Sgt. A. J. Lamison, Three Springs, Pennsylvania; Staff Sgt. P. J. Nelligan, Santa Rosa, California; and Pvts. O. R. Colestock, Hecla, South Dakota; A. A. Wildt, Broadmead, Oregon; and R. D. Risepter, Radcliffe, Iowa.
;30 September : Two pilots are killed and two injured when Lockheed P-38G-5-LO Lightning, 42-12854, piloted by William C. McConnell, by one source, or William M. McConnell, by another, taking off from the Lockheed Air Terminal, Burbank, California, on a test flight, swerves out of control, plows through several parked training planes, ignites, and damages a hangar of the Pacific Airmotive Company. McConnell, of San Fernando, California, a Lockheed test pilot for about two years, is killed. "The other pilot killed was identified from papers on his body as Eddie C. Wike, of Sharon, Conn., student flier from Ryan Aeronautical school at Hemet, who was near the group of parked training planes when the accident occurred. The two injured men were John Waide, Ryan instructor from Hemet, and Harold Keefe of Hollywood, representative of an airplane engine company." Parked aircraft damaged or destroyed were Ryan PT-22s, 41-15341, 41-15610, 41-20852, and a fourth with an incorrectly recorded serial that ties up to an AT-6A-NT Texan rather than the reported PT-22.
;30 September : "Hondo, Texas, Sept. 30 - Two officers and two enlisted men were killed in an airplane accident near the A.A.F. navigation school here. The dead included Capt. John G. Rafferty, 40, Monrovia, California." Lockheed A-28A-LO Hudson, 42-46980, of the 846th School Squadron, Hondo Army Airfield Navigation School, Texas, crashed 2.5 miles E - 1.5 mile N of the base due to a spin / stall after takeoff. Capt. Rafferty was the pilot.
;October
;October
;1 October : The Associated Press reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico, that a USAAF transport had crashed in the mountains NW of the town of Coamo, in southern Puerto Rico, killing all 22 on board. "Names of the dead were not announced immediately pending notification of relatives in the United States. Several civilians were known to have been aboard. The plane crashed shortly after its takeoff. It took hours for a searching party working afoot in the difficult mountain country to locate the wreckage." Douglas C-39, 38-524, c/n 2081, of the 20th Troop Carrier Squadron, assigned at Losey Field, Puerto Rico, piloted by Francis H. Durant, crashed 15 mi NW of Coamo.
;1 October : "VISALIA, Oct. 1 - Two Army aviation cadets and a civilian instructor were killed today in the mid-air collision of two primary training planes near Seville, five miles from their Sequoia field base. They were Cadets Mike Mumolo, 25, Los Angeles, and James Cameron Schwindt, 19, Santa Paul, and Instructor Edward Hedrick, 47, formerly of Ontario." Ryan PT-22s, 41-20658, flown by Schwindt, and 41-20661, flown by Mumolo, came down 7 mi E of Sequoia Field.
;3 October : "Akron, Ohio, Oct. 3 - A medium Army bomber crashed near Akron airport tonight and airport officials said all seven occupants were killed. Guards at the Goodyear Aircraft Corp. reported one of the ship's motors failed immediately after the takeoff. The state highway patrol at Columbus listed three of the victims as Lieut, C. R. Jackson of Akron, pilot; Lieut. Thomas Schoefield, Providence, R. I., and Lieut. Ralph Shrigley, Rootstown, Ohio." B-26B, 41-17813, of the 442d Bomb Squadron, 320th Bomb Group, out of Baer Field, Ft. Wayne, Indiana. The pilot was listed in the accident report as Claude R. Jackson.
;6 October : "Savannah, Ga., Oct. 6. - Five men stationed at Hunter field of the Savannah army air base were killed late today and a sixth was critically injured when the plane in which they were making a routine flight crashed over Camp Stewart." Lockheed B-34 Lexington, AJ420. of the 4th TTSq, Hunter Field, Savannah, suffered a forced landing following engine failure. Pilot was William L. Ineson. Aircraft was originally part of an RAF order for Lockheed Ventura IIs.
;8 October : "Long Beach, Oct. 8 - Capt. Don E. Brown, 25, son of Actor Joe E. Brown, was killed in the crash of an army bomber near Palm Springs this afternoon. An announcement from ferrying command said 'Capt. Brown was on a routine flight from the Long Beach air base to Utah when the crash occurred nine miles north of Palm Springs. Brown was flying alone.' He was only recently promoted to a captaincy, after having been commissioned a second lieutenant in the air forces July 11, 1941, and had been attached to the Long Beach ferrying command base a little over a year. Capt. Brown was a student body president at the University of California at Los Angeles in 1939 and cadet colonel of the R.O.T.C., and a first string football player in 1938 and 1939. He received his air forces training at Ontario, Moffett field and Stockton". Douglas A-20B-DL Havoc, 41-3295, of the 1st Ferrying Squadron, 6th Ferrying Group, Long Beach AAF, crashed after takeoff due to engine failure. Word of the accident reached the actor just before his cue to go on in the stage performance in Detroit of "The Show-Off". In a break with the old tradition that "the show must go on", Brown left the theatre immediately and the performance was cancelled. "Don was my oldest son, but I have another who will take his place in a few weeks," said Brown. "He is Joe Jr., 20 years old, now employed in the Douglas aircraft factory. Joe has arranged to join the marines." Funeral services were held at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale on 11 October 1942. "'Well, it had to be my boy,' said Brown, met at the airport by his other son Joe, Jr. 'He was a man and he took it like a man, I know. And so will I.'"
;8 October : "Halifax, N. S., Oct. 8 - Seven airmen are missing and believed killed after an R.A.F. plane crash in the Bay of Fundy at noon today." Lockheed Hudson Mk. III, RCAF BW700, taken on strength by Eastern Air Command, 25 March 1942, assigned to No. 36 Operational Training Unit at RCAF Station Greenwood, N. S. Still with this unit when it crashed near Port George, N. S. on 8 October 1942. Was reported missing on air to sea firing exercise, all crew missing, assumed killed. Ownership to No. 4 Repair Depot on 13 October 1942 for write off.
;10 October : "Berkeley, Oct. 10. - A World war I airplane believed to be the first to carry airmail to San Francisco will be salvaged for scrap metal. Mrs. C. A. Tusch, friend and confidante of many of America's most famous aviators, said she will donate the plane to the scrap drive. Her 'hangar' here is a museum for historical aeronautical relics. She also planned to contribute a German machine gun given her by a soldier in the first World war.".
;11 October: The Dornier Do 217N V1 stalls with its undercarriage down and crashes into Müritz Lake, killing the crew.
;11 October : Consolidated B-24D-1-CO Liberator, 41-23647, c/n 442, the eighth block 1 airframe, of the 469th Bomb Squadron, 333d Bomb Group, based at Topeka Army Airfield, Kansas, piloted by Ralph M. Dienst, suffers engine failure and crashes into a hillside three miles W of the base, killing eight and critically injuring one. "The plane was on a routine flight, army officers reported. Lt. H. R. Rubin of the Topeka base said the dead included: Lieut. Ralph M. Dienst, 26, Pasadena, California; Second Lieut. James H. Edwards, 24, Berkeley, California, and Second Lieut. James L. Holmes, 24, Fort Bragg, California."
;12 October : "Los Angeles, Oct. 12. - Four barrage balloons of the army's coastal defense system broke from their moorings today, one falling in flames after its metal trailing cable struck a high tension wire. Two were later recaptured and the fourth continued to soar."
;13 October : "Seattle, Oct. 13. - An army barrage balloon broke from its moorings in the Puget sound area today and swept over Seattle, starting a fire, breaking power and telephone wires, and disrupting transit system service. The balloon was brought to a halt about an hour after breaking away. A thousand feet of cable dragging from beneath the balloon caused the damage."
;14 October : The apparent mid-air explosion and crash of Beechcraft AT-11 Kansan, 41-27447, of the 383d School Squadron, out of Kirtland Field, four miles W of Belen, New Mexico, kills three crew. "The dead, as released by the Albuquerque air base: Second Lieut. Boyd C. Knetsar, the pilot, of Houston, Texas, and Aviation Cadets John Joseph Fischer, Detroit, and Earl William Ferris, St. Louis."
;15 October
;15 October : Nine men are killed when Boeing B-17E-BO Flying Fortress, 41-9161, of the 459th Bomb Squadron, 330th Bombardment Group, Alamagordo, New Mexico, piloted by John R. Pratt, crashes into Magdalena Peak, 6 miles SE of Magdalena, New Mexico. Forest Ranger Arthur Gibson reported the crash.
;16 October
;18 October
;21 October
;23 October
;25 October: The Dornier Do 217H V2 suffers propeller failure and crashes, severely injuring the crew.
;Late October
;2 November
;6 November
;18 November
;19/20 November
;27 November
;Post-November:Henschel Hs 130E V2, high-altitude reconnaissance and bomber design, first flown in November 1942, is lost on its seventh flight due to an engine fire. Replaced in testing by the V3. Type is never accepted for production.
;26 December :"Second Lt. Henry P. Perchal, 23 years old, son of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Perchal, 3460 North Laramie avenue, is one of eight men aboard an army medium bomber missing since last Saturday night on a flight from Barksdale field, near Shreveport, La., to its base at Walterboro, S. C." B-25C Mitchell, 41-12630, of the 489th Bomb Squadron, 340th Bomb Group, from Walterboro Army Airfield, piloted by Fred M. Hampton, crashes in Lafourche Swamp, Louisiana.
;28 December :Martin B-26B-4 Marauder, 41-18101, of the 496th Bomb Squadron, 344th Bomb Group, Drane Field, Lakeland Army Air Base #2, Lakeland, Florida, piloted by William A. Booth, with six on board, departs Tampa for San Antonio, Texas, and vanishes over the Gulf of Mexico. Aboard as passengers are Women's Army Auxiliary Corps Third Officer Eleanor C. Nate, 36, 631 Central Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois, and her husband, Maj. Joseph C. Nate. "Third Officer Nate, who is a recruiting officer at San Antonio, was en route to her post after spending a Christmas leave with her husband and her brother, Capt. John M. Campbell, in Tampa. Maj. Nate was accompanying her."
;29 December :"Pensacola, Fla., December 30, - Two Pensacola pilots are presumed to have been killed Tuesday night, it was announced by naval officials here tonight. They were Ensign Sylvain Bouche of New Orleans, La., and Cadet John T. Greer of Tamaqua, Pa."
;30 December :North American B-25D-1 Mitchell, 41-29855, of the 498th Bomb Squadron, 345th Bomb Group, flown by Frank E. Mason, crashes 1½ miles from Columbia Army Air Base, South Carolina. Three officers and two enlisted men are killed in the late Wednesday takeoff accident.
;30 December :A flying instructor and two cadets are killed in the collision of two Vultee BT-13A Valiants shortly after their takeoffs from Waco Army Air Field, Texas. BT-13A, 41-21734, of the 470th Basic Flight Training Squadron, flown by cadet Paul G. Shudick, and BT-13A, 41-22734, of the 468th Basic Flight Training Squadron, piloted by Lt. James A. Abney, crash killing Abney, of Shreveport, Louisiana, cadet Shudick, Gary, Indiana, and cadet William H. Turner, Burton, Texas.
;30 December :Boeing B-17F-35-BO Flying Fortress, 42-5123, of the 20th Bomb Squadron, 2d Bomb Group, Great Falls Army Air Base, Montana, piloted by Edward T. Layfield, crashes near Musselshell, Montana. Capt. John Lloyd, public relations officer at the Great Falls base, said that eleven aboard were killed.
;30 December :A U.S. Navy patrol bomber on a routine training flight crashes Sunday afternoon in the north end of the Salton Sea in the Imperial Valley, California, killing seven crew and injuring two. The Eleventh Naval District at San Diego identifies the dead as: Lt. William O. Carlson, plane commander, Seattle, Washington; Lt. Jack E. Brenner, pilot, Coronado, California; Ens. J. Douglas Simmons III, pilot, Cleveland, Mississippi; W. A. Morgan, aviation machinist's mate, San Diego; Louis J. Hanlon, aviation machinist's mate first class, Coronado; J. W. Jones, aviation ordnanceman second class, Utica, New York; J. J. O'Connor, aviation radioman third class, Denver, Colorado. "All bodies were recovered. No other details were made public."
;30 December :"San Francisco, December 30 - Four army fighter planes crashed within a 12-hour span in the San Francisco bay area today. Three of the pilots were believed killed. Two of the ships plunged to earth near Hamilton field, one ten miles north of Napa and the other just south of the field. Another crashed and exploded in a salt pond near Newark in southern Alameda county and the fourth crashed in Lake Chabot in the east Oakland foothills. Hamilton field, which announced all four mishaps, said the victim of the crash nearest the field was Second Lieut. Lloyd E. Blythe, 24, of Oakland. Second Lieut. Howard B. Stivers rode his plane to earth as it fell in Lake Chabot and was rescued uninjured. The pilots of the other two single-seaters were not identified immediately."