1951 — Aug 13, USAF B-50 Boeing Field takeoff crash into Lester Apts., Seattle, WA — 11

–11 Aviation Safety Network. USAF Boeing B-50D Superfortress crash 2mi N Boeing Field.
–6 USAF B-50 Superfortress (entire crew – 3 USAF airmen and 3 Boeing employees)
–5 Civilians on the ground.
–11 Daily Chronicle, Centralia, WA. “11 Die when Plane Rams Apartments.” 8-14-1951, p. 1.
–6 USAF Superfortress
–5 Lester Apartments residents
–11 Stein. “B-50 Bomber Crashes into…Lester Apartments near Boeing Field, Killing 11…”

Narrative Information

Aviation Safety Network:
“Date: 13-Aug-1951
“Time: 14:18
“Type: Boeing B-50D-100-BO Superfortress
“Owner/operator: United States Air Force (USAF)
“Registration: 49-0268
“MSN: 16044
“Fatalities: Fatalities: 6 / Occupants: 6
“Other fatalities: 5
“Aircraft damage: Written off (damaged beyond repair)
“Location: 2mi N of Boeing Field, WA
“Phase: Take off
“Nature: Military
“Departure airport: Boeing Field, Seattle, WA
“Destination airport: Boeing Field, Seattle, WA
“Confidence Rating: Information verified through data from accident investigation authorities
“Narrative:

“The B-50D failed to gain altitude after take-off from Boeing Field for a test flight after modifications due to mechanical troubles and stalled over Seattle. Its starboard wing clipped the roof of a brewery and the aircraft cartwheeled into the wooden three-story Lester Apartments, starting a fire that burned for more than five hours. All six crew members (three USAF airmen and three Boeing employees) and five persons on ground died in the crash, while twelve persons were injured and had to be hospitalized.)

Baugher: “Boeing B-50D-110-BO Superfortress….268 crashed on takeoff from Boeing Field Aug 13, 1951. All aboard killed.” (Baugher. 1949 USAF Serial Numbers. 8-17-2011 rev.)

Stein: “On August 13, 1951, a B-50 “Superfortress” bomber develops engine trouble immediately after taking off from Boeing Field. The plane glances off the Sicks’ Seattle Brewing and Malting Company and slams into nearby Lester Apartments on Beacon Hill, killing 11 people and injuring 11 others….

“The B-50 bomber was one of many undergoing modification by Boeing. The 164,000-pound aircraft usually carried a crew of 11, but this routine flight to check out military equipment carried only six — three Air Force men and three Boeing employees. At approximately 2:15 p.m., seconds after takeoff, radio operators at Boeing Field received a distress call from the pilot.

“Witnesses looked skyward and saw the plane struggling to gain altitude. The nose was pointing up, but the plane was wobbling and descending. Suddenly, it turned abruptly toward the brewery until the wings were almost vertical. The starboard wing nicked the top of the building, cartwheeling the aircraft into the nearby apartment house. All engines were on, and the plane was loaded with 4,000 gallons of fuel.

“It hit with a dull thud and exploded into flames. Thick black smoke poured out of the apartment house. The crew was dead, along with a few of the building residents. The rest scrambled to save their lives….

“Policeman at the Georgetown Precinct Station watched the accident and turned in a fire alarm immediately. Firemen were on the scene within minutes, by which time workers from the brewery were already there breaking windows and doors to get residents to safety. One third of the three-story frame building was demolished, and the rest of the wooden structure was burning fast.

“Nineteen-year-old Julia Thomas threw her baby out a second-story window into the arms of her husband John waiting below…. Some residents sat in the parking lot in shock. Others were carried out on stretchers and transported to the hospital.

“Fireman fought the flames as best they could, but the heat proved to be too great. The wreckage of the plane was not strewn over the hillside, but lay within the north end of the demolished apartment building, a massive ball of twisted metal. It burned for hours….

All told, 11 people died in the accident — the six bomber crewmembers and three men and two women from the apartment house. Eleven people were hospitalized from burns or cuts received while trying to escape. Thankfully, many residents of the 51-unit building were at work, otherwise the death toll would have been much higher.

The widows of the airmen choked back tears as they talked with reporters. Crewman Kenneth Barrick left behind three young daughters. Four-year-old Kristen, sensing that something bad had happened, told her mother, “I wish Daddy had never gone to work.”….” (Stein. “B-50 Bomber Crashes into…Lester Apartments near Boeing Field, Killing 11…” )

Newspaper

Aug 14, Associated Press: “Seattle, Aug. 14 – (AP) – A faltering B-50 bomber, like a bird with a broken wing, veered into a hillside apartment house here yesterday and killed 11 or more people.

“The six men aboard the four-engine air force plane, and five occupants of the old Lester apartments in Seattle’s south end industrial district were known dead. Their bodies were recovered before dark.

“Coroner John P. Brill Jr. said today the 67 occupants of the frame tenement-like building had been accounted for with a single exception. Brill said the lone man might be one of two unidentified dead, but identification was not positive.

“The plane’s crew included three air force men and three Boeing Airplane company technicians.

“It seemed almost a miracle that more were not killed in the thundering crash of the bomber, about a mile from its Boeing field takeoff point. Flames engulfed the flimsy 200-foot long, three-story structure. At least a third of it was wiped out by impact, explosion or fire. There were dozens of narrow escapes. Twelve injured persons were hospitalized….

“Numerous witnesses to the crash behind Seattle’s biggest brewery said all the plane’s engines seemed to be operating, but the theory gained credence today that there might have been trouble in the two right-side engines.

“After losing altitude, the B-50 veered sharply to the right; scraped the Brewery, in which about 200 persons were working, and crashed against the hillside. Witnesses indicated the big plane hit the hillside and bounced or skidded with destructive force into the apartment house.

“The scene is a short distance from the spot where a prototype B-29 crashed into packing company plant in 1943, killing 31.

“A witness to the B-50 disaster…said the big bomber was laboring heavily, nose up and tail down in an effort to gain altitude. Then it tipped almost on its side with engines wide open, and turned into a mass of flame when it hit….” (Daily Chronicle, Centralia, WA. “11 Die when Plane Rams Apartments.” 8-14-1951, p. 1.)

Sources

Aviation Safety Network. USAF Boeing B-50D-110-BO Superfortress crash 2mi N Boeing Field, 13-Aug-1951 (ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 98673). Accessed 6-24-2023 at:
http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/98673

Baugher, Joseph F. 1949 USAF Serial Numbers. Aug 17 2011 revision. Accessed at: http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1949.html

Daily Chronicle, Centralia, WA. “11 Die when Plane Rams Apartments.” 8-14-1951, p. 1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=79545333

Stein, Alan J. “B-50 Bomber Crashes into the Lester Apartments near Boeing Field, Killing 11, on August 13, 1951.” The Free Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History, Oct 2, 2002. Accessed at: http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=3969