Commando 41-24688

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

USAF SERIAL NUMBER (S/N): 41-24688

CURTISS CONSTRUCTION NUMBER (C/N): 26609

COMMANDO LINE NUMBER (L/N): CU249

FATE: Written off

  August 1943 to March 1944

  41-24688 - USAAF (USA)

30 August 1943

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

10 December 1943

Assigned to ATC India-China Wing based at Station 7, Sookerating, Assam, India.

7 February 1944

Received major damage in Sookerating, Assam, India in a taxi accident.

Pilot: Lowell E. Adams

27 March 1944

Went missing over the eastern Himalayas in Tibet, China (4/4 missing). [MACR 3282]

The aircraft went missing enroute between Kunming, Yunnan, China and Sookerating, Assam, India. Last radio contact was when the crew radioed another aircraft for a bearing. It is believed the crew were lost, and they were eventually forced to bail out when fuel was exhausted.

Crew:
Capt. Douglas R Wight, Pilot
1^st Lt Herbert W Evans, Copilot
PFC Gerald L Rugers Jr., Radio Operator
Cpl John W. Hanlon, Crew Chief

[accident date reported as 28 March 1944 by AAIR]

29 April 1944

Condemned for salvage.

2000

Wreckage found at 4,600 meters elevation on the Ruoguo Glacier in Nyingchi, Tibet, China by local hunters.

August 2002

A US-China joint team went up to study the wreckage and bring back crew remains and artifacts. The crew bodies, found sheltered in a nearby cave, seem to confirm the men bailed out safely but died of hypothermia while waiting for rescue.

[There is a confusion in the wreckage found with C-87 41-23862 which went missing in the same area on 31 January 1944, commanded by 1^st Lt Fulton P. Lanier. Lots of Chinese news articles tend to mix up both airplanes. The C-87 was actually found in 1993, and its wreckage was brought down to Chengdu, Sichuan, China to be displayed in Jianchuan Museum.]

[This Commando is also reported severely damaged on 23 April 1944 in a belly landing in Kunming, Yunnan, China by AAIR, but this is likely an error]

Below: the remains of 41-24688 and the US-Chinese team that went to investigate them in 2002.
Photo credit: ycwb.com