1948 B-29 Lake Mead crash

Infobox Aircraft incident
name = 1948 B-29 Lake Mead crash
date = July 21, 1948
type = Controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) due to pilot error
site = Lake Mead, Nevada, USA
passengers = 0
crew = 5
injuries = 0
survivors = 5
origin =
destination = Armitage Field (now China Lake), California
aircraft_type = Boeing F-13 Superfortress
operator = United States Air Force
tail_number = 45-21847

The 1948 B-29 Lake Mead crash occurred July 21, 1948 when a Boeing B-29-100-BW Superfortress, modified into an F-13 reconnaissance platform, flew into the waters of Lake Mead, Nevada, USA during a classified mission to study the Sun's solar variation.

After completing a run to convert|30000|ft|m east of Lake Mead, the crew began a descent and leveled out just over convert|300|ft|m above the surface of Lake Mead. The crew described the lake as looking like a mirror, with the sun reflecting brightly off the surface. These conditions make judging height above a surface considerably more difficult. The aircraft then slowly began to descend below convert|100|ft|m|abbr=on until it struck the surface at convert|250|mi/h|km/h|abbr=on and started skipping along it. Three of the aircraft's four engines were ripped from its wings and the fourth burst into fire. The aircraft managed to gain around convert|250|ft|m|abbr=on but could not sustain enough lift to continue flight, falling back onto the water's surface in a nose-up attitude and slowly skiing to a stop. The five-man crew then bailed out into two liferafts and watched the aircraft sink in a virtually intact condition.

The crew was rescued from the lake six hours later and was instructed not to disclose any details of the flight, its mission or its loss. As the mission was classified, these details were not released until fifty years later.

External links

* [http://www.indepthconsulting.com/B29/B29Lost.htm The Story of Lake Meads B-29 -- In Depth Consulting]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_KBsXBnmpo National Park Service Underwater footage of B-29]