Rentschler Field, East Hartford, Connecticut – May 3, 1944
Updated February 2, 2022.
B-24 Liberator
U.S. Air Force Photo
On the night of May 3, 1944, a B-24 Liberator with a crew of eleven men aboard, took off from Westover Field in Chicopee, Massachusetts, for a night cross-country navigation training flight.
While over New York, the number three engine lost power so the pilot turned the plane back towards Westover. Before long another engine lost power and the plane was rapidly loosing altitude, so the pilot decided to make an emergency landing at Rentschler Field. Then it was discovered that there was a problem with the landing gear. The nose wheel had to be cranked down manually, but it couldn’t be locked in place.
The plane landed on the main wheels with the nose kept high, but when the nose wheel touched down it collapsed and the front of the aircraft hit the ground and was crushed as the nose dug in, killing the pilot, 2nd Lt. John W. Garrett, age 19, and injuring four members of the crew. The other six escaped without injury.
Lt. Garrett is buried in Green Mountain Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland. To see a photograph of Lt. Garrett click here: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/114672261/john-work-garrett
Sources:
Springfield Union, “Westover Pilot Is Killed In East Hartford Crash”, May 4, 1944
www.findagrave.com
Book, “Fatal Army Air Forces Aviation Accidents In The United States, 1941-1954”, by Anthony J. Mireles, C. 2006.
