Commando 42-3582

VARIANT: Curtiss C-46A-35-CU Commando

USAF SERIAL NUMBER (S/N): 42-3582

CURTISS CONSTRUCTION NUMBER (C/N): 26715

COMMANDO LINE NUMBER (L/N): CU355

FATE: Written off

  December 1943

  42-3582 - CURTISS-WRIGHT CORPORATION (USA)

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15 December 1943

Transferred from the Curtiss-Wright factory in Buffalo, NY to the one in Louisville, KY.

  December 1943 to January 1944

  42-3582 - USAAF (USA)

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31 December 1943

Delivered from the Curtiss-Wright factory in Louisville, KY.

  January 1944 to December 1946

  39528 - US MARINE CORPS (USA)

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17 January 1944

Transferred as R5C-1.

By August 1944

Assigned to VMR-252.

February 1945

Assigned to MAG-15 Service Squadron (Servron-15).

March 1945

Assigned to Homeland Defense Network (HDN), MAG-35.

April 1945

Assigned to NAS San Diego, CA.

30 July 1945

Assigned to Marine Fleet Air West Coast.

August 1945

Assigned to Homeland Defense Network (HDN), MAG-35.

October 1945

Assigned to MAG-35 Service Squadron (Servron-35).

February 1946

Assigned to NAS San Diego, CA.

March 1946

Assigned to MAG-35 Service Squadron (Servron-35).

1 April 1946

Assigned to Homeland Defense Network (HDN), MAG-35.

29 April 1946

Assigned to MAG-33.

June 1946

Assigned to MAG-33 Service Squadron (Servron-33).

19 June 1946

Assigned to VMR-253.

November 1946

Assigned to VMR-152 based at MCAS El Toro, CA.

10 December 1946

Went missing when it crashed into South Tahoma Glacier on Mount Rainier, WA (32/32 fatalities).

On December 10, 1946, six Commandos carrying more than 200 US Marines left San Diego, CA en route to Seattle, WA. The aircraft, flying entirely by instruments at an altitude of 9,000 feet, encountered heavy weather over southwest Washington. Four of them turned back and diverted to Portland, OR; one managed to land safely in Seattle; but the sixth plane, carrying 29 Marines, vanished. Search-and-rescue aircraft, hampered by continuing bad weather, were unable to fly for a week and ground searches proved fruitless. After two weeks, the search for the missing aircraft was suspended. The Navy determined that the aircraft was blown off course by high winds and flew into the side of Mount Rainier (14,410 feet).

Crew:
Maj Robert V. Reilly, Pilot
Lt Col Alben C. Robertson, Copilot
M/Sgt Wallace J. Slonina, Crew Chief

31 January 1947

Struck off charge as Class 4-7-Z.

July 1947

A ranger of Mount Rainier National Park spotted debris on South Tahoma Glacier. A search party examined them and confirmed they came from the missing plane. Four weeks later, the bodies were found higher on the face of the glacier, but extremely hazardous conditions forced the authorities to abandon plans to remove them for burial. The 32 US Marines remain entombed forever on Mount Rainier. Then, it was the worst accident, in terms of fatalities, in United States aviation history and it remains to this day Mount Rainier’s greatest tragedy.