Lake Memphremagog, VT – June 28, 1942

Lake Memphremagog, Vermont – June 28, 1942

     Very little information seems to exist relating to this accident.  The information was released in a small Associated Press article that also included two other military plane crashes; one in Boston, and the other in Rhode Island. 

     On June 28, 1942, an aircraft piloted by C. N. Pate, of the Royal Canadian Air Force, crashed and sank in Lake Memphremagog, off shore from Newport, Vermont.  The pilot did not survive. 

     The type of aircraft, the pilot’s full name, and rank, were not specified.  Only that he had flown out of Hubert Field in Quebec.

     Lake Memphremagog covers about 40 square miles, and straddles the Canadian and United States border, most of it being in Canada.  

     Source:

     Nashua Telegraph, “Three Army Plane Crashes Add To Weekend Death Toll”, June 29, 1942

Update February 24, 2017

     The following information was supplied to New England Aviation History by Mr. David Archer.  Thank you Mr. Archer.

     The full name of the pilot was Roy Nelson Pate, age 22, of Toronto, Canada.  He was born June 12, 1920, and was only 16 days shy of his 23rd birthday.  He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force on August 22, 1941, and is buried in Toronto (Resthaven) Memorial Garden; Ontario Canada. 

Source: Canadian Virtual War Memorial

     Mr. Archer also included the following (AP) newspaper article:

     R.C.A.F. Flier Killed In Vermont Crash

     Newport, Vt., June 28 (AP) – An airplane plunged into Lake Memphremagog within sight of this town today, and the body of a Royal Canadian Air Force flier was recovered later by a diver.  The plane went into the lake about four miles from here and a half-mile from shore, close to the Canadian border.  Oliver Packer, a Newport fire department diver, operating from a special diving raft towed by a United States customs boat, said he found the flier’s body jammed in the cockpit of the plane, which was submerged in thirty feet of water.  There was no indication that more than one man was in the plane.  

 

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