Commando 41-24688
Aircraft Identification
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
Operational Record
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
1st 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 1st 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
