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From Fletcher Hank's, "WHEN AND HOW THE CNAC CRASHES HAPPENED ON THE HUMP AND ITS ENVIRONS DURING WWII" (hand-dated 5/4/02) Paul "Pop" Kesler, 06/18/44, C-47 #71. CNAC's oldest pilot. 1 passenger killed. Copilot Yen (Chinese), C.C. Yang, radio operator (Chinese). Flying from Kunming to Chungking, at Chungking he could not break out on the instrument letdown. He headed to Kweilin but it closed before he could get there. No airports were open. He held over Kweilin for 3 hours. There were no chutes on the plane because it was a passenger plane. When he started running out of gas, he letdown gradually at 80 mph. The plane hit a mountain and was demolished. Crew survived but broken up badly, however, a Navy Lt. passenger was killed. He had served at the weather station on the edge of the Gobi Desert. Source: Common knowledge among the captains.  or would like to be added to the CNAC e-mail distribution list, please let the CNAC Web Editor, Tom Moore know. Thanks! |