June 22, 2009 © Thomas J. Kollenborn. All Rights Reserved.
The
Superstition Wilderness Area has yielded treasures other than gold,
treasures such as archaeological sites, old mines and even vintage
aircraft. The following is the story of one aircraft that went down in
the wilderness some 67 years ago.
A Canadian pilot and an instructor took
off from Falcon Field for a routine check flight on the morning of
February 21, 1942. This routine flight turned out to be a miracle for
the two Canadian military men when, high over the rugged Superstition
Wilderness, the aircraft’s engine failed. With nothing but deep canyons
and lofty mountain peaks below the pilot and student suddenly were
confronted with a life and death crisis. If you were to pull out a 7.5
min. topographic quadrangle of the area where Whiskey Springs Canyon
flows into La Barge Canyon you would find no available emergency landing
sites of any kind.
I became involved with this story for
the first time in the late fall of 1946. My father had heard about the
airplane crashing in the Superstitions during the war and had decided to
hike to the site. This was shortly after the end of the end of World
War II when few people were interested in either the Superstitions or
plane crashes.
William A. Barkley had told my dad
exactly where the plane had crashed in Whiskey Springs Canyon. He told
my dad the plane was in excellent condition and most of its
instrumentation was still on board.
After hearing this information, my
father and I drove out to the Quarter Circle U Ranch in Pinal County. We
departed the ranch on the morning of November 15, 1948 and hiked up to
Miner’s Needle Summit. We turned right, paralleling the ridge to the
east. We then hiked up through another saddle and then down into the
headwaters of Whiskey Springs Canyon.
As we came around a small bend in the
canyon there, resting in the morning sun, was a Fleet Mark 7 PT-6
airplane in amazingly good condition. This particular aircraft was used
as a primary trainer by the U.S. Army Air Corps and the Royal Canadian
Air Force. The plane was a two-place tandem and all-fabric fuselage
except for the cockpit area. It was powered with a five-cylinder radial,
125 horsepower Kinner engine.
There were only 15 of these aircraft
constructed for the U.S. Army Corps during the war years 1940-1945
because the aircraft was dangerously under-powered and easy to stall.
This particular aircraft was assembled in Ontario, Canada, and the
information available on this aircraft indicates it was used for service
by the Royal Canadian Air Force.
The Mark Fleet 7 PT-6 remained at its
crash site until the spring of 1963. At which time it was packed out of
the Superstitions piece by piece. The project was accomplished by a
flying club in Tucson. The Tucson Aero-Club had originally planned to
restore the aircraft to flying status once again. However, this proved
to be too much of a financial burden for the club.
The club retained the aircraft for a
year or so, then sold it to a local collector of vintage aircraft. In
1975 the plane was sold to another collector from the state of
Washington. Recent information indicates the aircraft is once again
flying.
I returned to the crash site in 1961
with an old friend named Joseph Roider. We spent the night camped at the
old crash site, and the next morning we took numerous photographs of
the plane and the area. I climbed to a ridge above the crash site and
looked down. I could hardly keep from wondering what was on the minds of
the pilots when they were searching for a place to set the airplane
down. From a bird’s eye view, the only thing I could see were rocks,
saguaros and deep canyons.
I’m sure
the 2-man crew thought the end was near as the plane came crashing in
for a landing. The plane impact on the top of a ridge and flipped,
eventually coming to a rest on its wheels. The two pilots survived the
impact. Faith and luck probably saved their lives. They walked out to
the Quarter Circle U Ranch and once again returned to flying status. I
returned to the site again in 1982 and found only a single tire from the
airplane. Today it is difficult, if not impossible, to locate the exact
site where the crash occurred in 1942. The miracle of that day is that
two lives were spared.