#PrescottAZHistory: 1952 Saw Six Air Accidents

In the early 1950s, the Prescott Airport was a bustling place. Two airlines, Frontier and Bonanza, offered commercial service while many planes, including military, used Prescott Airport as a refueling stop. Of course, with increased activity comes the chance of increased mishaps and accidents.

Such was the case in 1952 when no less than six airplane accidents occurred around Prescott.

January 7th:

A large C-47 military cargo plane, wanting to refuel, belly-landed on Prescott’s longest runway. Fortunately, no-one was injured. “According to one airport employee, the pilot of the plane…did not know the plane’s wheels were not operating until the plane's propellers struck the runway.”

It was hoped that the wreckage could be removed quickly, but “due to the type of damage the cargo plane suffered it (was) impossible to move it in the usual manner,” the paper reported. For several days the only runaway available was the smaller 6000 foot one.

January 25th:

Less than three weeks later, word was sent of a missing aircraft flying from Albuquerque to Monrovia, CA. “The plane was last heard from at 2:50 pm…when (the pilot) made a routine report stating his position as 8000 feet over Winslow,” the paper explained.

Immediately “some 19 planes were involved in (the) search and a large group of aircraft (flew) regular patrols. Scores of people visited the airport, which was a beehive of activity, and planes landed and took off for the search in close intervals.”

January 29th:

For four days the search continued without a clue when tragedy struck again. While searching for the California bound plane, a "Civil Air Patrol pilot and assistant station manger for Bonanza Airlines, Ken May, along with Herb Chesney, a representative from Frontier Airlines, crashed into a canyon on Mingus Mountain, one half mile south of the Mingus Mountain Inn late (in the) afternoon.”

“The crash was witnessed by a CAP pilot from Flagstaff, Beth Maxwell, who radioed a report to the control tower at the Prescott Airport," the paper reported. "A ground rescue unit, there to help once the missing California’s men’s plane was located, rushed to the scene.” Ken May, age 26, was killed while Chesney, 20, suffered a skull fracture and severe facial lacerations from which he would eventually recover. It was determined that the carburetor on May’s two-seat Cub iced-up causing the crash.

The search continued for the 2 missing California men, but to no avail. However, during this quest, a different wreck from the previous November was finally located “on a 6300 foot ledge 3 miles south of Mazatzal Peak in Tonto Basin.”

Finally, on February 8th, after over 365 hours of search time in the air, the hunt was called off.

March 11th:

On a rainy, cold evening, 23-year-old Clifford McAleese had to make a forced landing when the wings of his plane iced up. “He suddenly found his craft skirting rugged mountains and Burro Creek Canyon. He miraculously avoided striking any of the peaks” and then noticed “the only road within miles of the area,” ten miles north of Bagdad. The plane landed undamaged and he was unhurt, but he was now stranded in a near wilderness.

After landing, McAleese “walked through a driving rain about 5 miles until he came to a line camp of the Yolo Ranch” where two cowboys housed and fed him. He then walked another 5 miles to the Hillside Mine where he found the Deputy Sheriff and the search was called off. He later hiked ten miles back to the plane and successfully took off from the road.

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August 31st:

“Forty-one lives miraculously were saved when the pilots of a C-46 transport made a perfect belly-landing in a Chino Valley pasture after one of the craft's motors failed on its take-off from the Prescott Airport,” the paper ventured. (This incident is pictured at the top of this article.) “The distance the craft skidded after touching the ground is indicated by the 3 streaks behind the plane.”

“The 36 passengers (and 5 crew) on the plane were all Air Force soldiers en route to a new assignment,” the paper explained. They were traveling from a West coast air base to Keesler Field in Mississippi and landed at Prescott to refuel.

Upon take-off, when it was only 12 feet in the air, one of the engines failed. Fortunately, the pilot was able to gain enough altitude to spot the flat pasture before he “made a forced, wheels-up landing in the Perkins pasture.” The belly-landing was considered perfect as “none suffered a scratch.”

"It landed in a cloud of dust, leaving 3 huge streaks across the pasture until it skidded to a halt," the paper described. "The mishap was sighted from the local airport and both ground rescue parties and planes hurried to the scene." They found the 41 persons, milling about outside the plane, "waiting for transportation."

After spending the night at the Congregational Campgrounds in the Granite Dells, the 36 “continued their journey in another plane” the next day, while the “5 crewmen of the plane (remained) in Prescott during investigation of the cause of the crash by CAA inspectors.”

As minor as the crash was, the problem of retrieving the plane became a major project. “In order to repair the craft, it (was) necessary to lift it off the ground with huge balloons placed under the plane, then inflated.” The idea was to fix the plane and its engine in the field and attempt a take off through the pasture. While mechanics worked on the engine and bottom of the plane, a bulldozer started working on flattening a dirt strip. It took two weeks to accomplish all this.

A Courier photographer was on hand to snap a picture when the plane first became airborne:

November 15th:

In mid November, a winter storm hit Prescott bringing rain, snow and heavy winds. “The snow was wet and heavy,” the paper reported. "Telephone and power lines were cut, trees were stripped of many branches, and many minor traffic accidents occurred."

The storm was also the cause of a plane crash November 15th that took the life of a Navy pilot who was flying from Denver to Las Vegas. His F-8-F was tossed violently in the storm when it “crashed and exploded against the side of Scott Mountain, 1.25 miles north of Skull Valley.”

Sheriff Orville Bozarth went immediately to the scene and reported that “the plane was blown to bits, as was the body of the pilot.”

Fortunately, the remaining weeks of 1952 were trouble-free.

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