• Each button sorts list by that category. Click again to sort in reverse order.
• Button color indicates ascending (green) or descending (red) sort order.
• Leading zero(s) (-0, or -00) inserted in some Serial Numbers above for sorting purposes. Delete if searching elsewhere.
• § after pilot name indicates additional information is in the Pilot Notes section below.

Data in the Accident List above and Notes below is derived from two websites and one book:

• USAF/USAAF Aircraft Accidents for Galapagos Islands at Accident-Report.com website,
• AAIR: Aviation Archaeological Investigation & Research.
  • Accident Report Monthly List describes “Damage” levels above.
  • Action Code List gives complete list of Codes in the above “Status” column, plus many more.
• Hagedorn, Dan: Alae Supra Canalem.

A full accident report for any aircraft can be ordered from either website. See either site above for ordering instructions and further details.

• Two Accident Site locations (Panama/Baltra, for example) indicate conflicting data in the AAIR/Accident-Report.com websites.
• Only the AAIR site lists Home Base details.
• A Home Base listing of (none) is assumed to be Baltra, or is replaced by Baltra if known to be plane's home base.
• The Accident-Report.com site lists Galápagos for almost all accident sites, which is changed to Baltra above for takeoff and landing accidents. However, there is always the possibility that an accident occurred as the plane landed someplace else (LAC) or took off from someplace else (TOA).
• Accident Site listed as Galápagos if actual location in the islands is unknown.
• CZ = Canal Zone.
• A ● symbol after a pilot's name indicates his remains were subsequently interred at the Corozal Cemetery, Panama, as noted in the Gorgas Hospital Death Records. Remains of other pilots killed in accidents (Status K … or LAS) were not recovered; hence not interred.

---

Pilot Notes

This section contains explanatory notes pertaining to some of the accidents listed above, as indicated by a § symbol next to the pilot's name.

Agard, Leland H. Both sources list Accident Site as Galápagos. The FLOG status suggests the aircraft ran out of fuel as it approached the Galápagos landing strip. The VI Bomber Command website reports the following:

B-24J, “Shoo Shoo Baby,” #9951 [42-99951], assigned to the 397th Bombardment Squadron, and piloted by Capt Leland H. Agard, crashed on Semour [sic Seymour, or Baltra] Island, Galapagos Islands at 2335Z, on May 15, 1944, one-half mile northeast of the North-South runway. The aircrew was comprised of Capt. Agard, 1st. Lt. Felix W. Stone, Jr., 1st. Lt. Donald J. Watkins. 2d. Lt. Walter R. Meier, TSgt Stanley Sneed, TSgt John E. Wadinski, SSgt A. J. Tjenstrom, Sgt W. F. Doyle, and Sgt M. P. Jenkins. The plane had participated in a formation bombing mission and was returning to base. Capt. Agard and Lt. Stone, the co-pilot, maneuvered the plane to a crash landing that resulted in minimum injuries to the personnel involved. None of the officers and enlisted men aboard the aircraft was killed in the crash. Lt. Meier, however, was seriously injured and did not return to flight duty until January 1945.

Barlow, Richard H. AAIR report lists no Home Base or Accident Site. Accident-Report.com website lists Galápagos, but their source for this information is unknown.

Gaughan, Robert H. Hagedorn (p. 132) gives the following report:

“[A] B-17E bearing Squadron No. 38 (strangely not traced in Individual Aircraft History Cards) developed engine trouble while on patrol on 6 January, 1943 and crashed in a bay [unidentified] near the Galapagos and, miraculously, only two crew members perished.”

The full serial number is 41-9038, which identifies the B-17E pilot as Gaughan, Robert H. The Mortuary Notes on the Index to Mortuary Death Records page identifies the deceased crew members as Henry Pfingstl and Bert Helton. No Home Base is listed at the AAIR site, but Hagedorn lists it as Guatemala City, Guatemala, and that location is given above.

Elsewhere (p. 191), Hagedorn's list mis-identifies the serial number as “coded ‘39’ ” which pertains to another B-17E accident elsewhere.

Haugen, Carl P. Crash Survivor Corporal Walter S. Beebe wrote his recollections of the crash some 49 years after the event.

Hooper, Maurice F. According to the January, 1988 40th Bomb Group newsletter Memories (p. 3),

“Captain Maurice Hooper of the squadron was assigned the first night landing effort. A tragic crash resulted with the loss of four [unidentified] crew members.”

Therefore, the KTOA status is an apparent error and should be KLAC. Hooper's plane apparently struck another B-24D which was parked with no pilot aboard. If the four deaths were the direct result of this collision, then the Status code would be KCRGC. See “None (parked)” entry below. Hagedorn, p.191 reports:

“B-24D 41-23916 [no pilot name given] was w/o (written off ?) at APO 662 (the Galapagos) but the fate of the crew is not known.”

Kline, Jack C. In Hagedorn, p.190:

“August 1942. … made a forced landing in the water off the Galapagos in L-4A 42-36726. Fate unknown.” Conflicting date (1943/05/26), no damage or status given at AAIR website. Given Hagedorn's description, “Damage” and “Status” are assumed to be 5 and LAS, respectively.

Knott, Leonard H. Location given as Canal Zone in one source, as Galápagos in another. His name does not appear in the Gorgas Hospital Mortuary Death Records, so the Canal Zone is assmumed to be the correct accident location.

LePage Jr., Arthur C. The AAIR website gives the location as APO (Army Postal Service) 662; that is, the Galápagos Islands.

Mast, John F. His Canal Zone accident (not related to his subsequent Galápagos duty) is listed to point out that he had three accidents, the last one resulting in his death. For reasons unknown, his school obituary notice omits mention of his second accident (1942/07/05), which apparently occurred shortly after his arrival at Isla Baltra. Although photos of the accident scene suggest Mast could not have survived the crash, his own Accident Report states that he was able to get out of the plane with minor injuries and survey the damage before a flare started a grass fire that eventually consumed the body of the plane.

Mast was killed in his third crash: 1942/08/07 on Isla Pinzón. Gorgas Hospital Death Records indicate his remains were subsequently recovered (table at top of page; recovery date unknown), and received and buried at Corozal Cemetery, Panama on May 15, 1946.

None (parked). Note that the 1943/04/22 date matches that of the Hooper accident. It would therefore appear that this aircraft was struck by Hooper's plane as he made his night landing. In that case, the Status Code should probably be GAC (Ground ACcident), not TOA (TakeOff Accident), because this parked pilotless aircraft was obviously not attempting a takeoff.

Stewart, Alexander W. AAIR report lists no Home Base, and Panama as Accident site.

Ussery, William. On October 31, 1943, a search team photographed the LB-30 crash site on Isla Pinzón and filed a Searching Expedition Report a few days later. Hagedorn, p.190 reports that the LB-30 …

“ … was lost while on patrol out of the Galapagos with all hands. It crashed homeward bound into the peak on Indefatigable Island [Isla Santa Cruz], only minutes from home. All 10 men died.”

As noted above, the actual crash site was Isla Pinzón, and the number of crewmen remains uncertain.

Woodward, Norman W. Hagedorn, p.191 reports that his plane …

“ … went missing on a flight out of the Galapagos. According to members of his flight, he was caught in the violent updrafts from an active volcano on Isabela Island and was propelled to heights out of sight of his comrades. Never found.” §

§  Given that it is unlikely Woodward's plane was propelled upwards and out of sight, it seems more likely that a downdraft and/or engine failure, plus the KCR status reported above, forced his plane downwards into the crater. Colonel Ira V. Matthews described a 1943 eruption on Isla Isabela in the “Galápagos Volcano” chapter of his Collection of 81 War Stories …. Although he does not identify the volcano by name, Cerro Azul is known to have erupted at that time, and is thought to be the Woodward crash site.

---

Margret Wittmer's Account of the Cerro Azul Eruption

In her 1961 Floreana Adventure (pp. 179-183), Margret Wittmer recalls the eruption and subsequent events, from which these excerpts are taken: