Commando 41-24650

VARIANT: Curtiss C-46A-20-CU Commando

USAF SERIAL NUMBER (S/N): 41-24650

CURTISS CONSTRUCTION NUMBER (C/N): 26571

COMMANDO LINE NUMBER (L/N): CU211

FATE: Written off

  July 1943 to December 1945

  41-24650 - USAAF (USA)

24 July 1943

Delivered from the Curtiss-Wright factory in Buffalo, NY.

12 August 1943

Assigned to ATC India-China Wing, 30^th Transport Group, 302^nd Transport Squadron based in Mohanbari, Assam, India.

1 November 1943

Received major damage in Mohanbari, Assam, India in a landing accident.

Pilot: Robert P. Chase

7 February 1944

Received major damage in Kunming, Yunnan, China in a landing accident.

Pilot: Herman R. Dittmer

8 August 1944

Assigned back to the continental USA.

  December 1945 to May 1954

  41-24650 - RFC (RECONSTRUCTION FINANCE CORPORATION) (USA)

15 December 1945

Transferred to RFC, stored at Ontario AAF, CA.

  May 1954 to June 1954

  N69095 - BEN W. WIDTFELDT (USA)

May 1954

Purchased from RFC.

  June 1954 to 1961

  N69095 - ZANTOP FLYING SERVICE (USA)

June 1954

Purchased.

9 September 1955

Ground-looped off runway while taking off from Atlanta, GA (no fatalities).

Right: surplus N69095, freshly out of RFC, awaits a brighter future at Hayward, CA in August 1954.
Photo credit: Bill Larkins / Wikimedia Commons

  1961 to 1962

  N609Z - ZANTOP FLYING SERVICE (USA)

1961

Reregistered.

  1962 to December 1963

  N609Z - ZANTOP AIR TRANSPORT (USA)

1962

Transferred.

7 December 1963

Went missing in bad weather enroute from Lowry AFB, CO to Hill AFB, UT (3/3 fatalities).

The Commando disappeared while conducting a cargo flight on behalf of the USAF at an altitude of 12,500 feet. SAR operations were initiated but eventually suspended a few days later as no trace of the airplane could be found.

8 July 1964

Wreckage found 10 miles northwest of Nederland, CO. The plane had impacted a vertical rock face in level flight, with a slightly nose-up attitude at about 12,500 feet altitude. Fire had consumed 90% of the wreckage.

The cause of the accident was attributed to improper in-flight planning and poor judgment, while military personnel who dispatched the flight was blamed for delivering an inadequate weather briefing to the crew.