Cape Cod Bay – November, 4, 1953
Grumman AF-2W Guardian (U.S. Navy photo.)
On the evening of November 4, 1953, a navy AF-2W Guardian aircraft, (Bu. No. 130396), with three men aboard, took off from the Quonset Point Naval Air Station in Rhode Island for a routine training flight. At about 7:00 P.M., while over Cape Cod Bay, the engine failed, and the pilot was forced to make an emergency landing in the water about two miles off the shore of Sandwich, Massachusetts. As the plane was going down an S.O.S. was sent.
Once in the water the crew scrambled out of the aircraft before it sank and inflated their one-man life rafts and lashed them together. They then floated in the bay until rescued by a Coast Guard boat.
Sources:
Providence Journal, “3 Quonset Fliers Saved In Crash”, November 5, 1953, pg. 7.
Aviation Safety Network
