Mid-Air Crash Over Midland, 1956

                On October 24, 1956, a Lockheed T-33 “Shooting Star” collided with a Cessna 170 over the Permian Estates development of Midland, Texas.  The crash killed all persons on board both airplanes.  Miraculously, no one on the ground was injured despite all of the wreckage falling on a residential area.  This would be Midland’s worst aircraft crash, in terms of lives lost, until 1983.  It remains Midland’s deadliest military aircraft incident.

Cessna 170

                There was little detail published on the crash because Cold War secrecy restricted public information on military aviation incidents in the early 1950’s.  Unlike the many reports I've obtained for World War II era and civilian crashes, I had to file a Freedom of Information Act request with the Air Force for the report.   The Air Force redacted some personal information on military personnel, all names and information on civilians, and much of the investigation details.  Fortunately, the findings remained. 

                There were photographs of wreckage and model mock-ups, but there were no photographs of the victims released, which I found to be respectful.

Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star

                A Lockheed T-33 “Shooting Star” jet departed Webb Air Force Base in Big Spring, Texas at 13:51 that day.  The T-33 is the training variant of the P-80 jet fighter, and was a frequent sight over the skies of west Texas in those days.  Captain Roy Roberts, an instructor pilot, was in the forward seat.  The student pilot, First Lieutenant Lowell Hale, was in the aft seat.

                Their mission was to perform ILS (Instrument Landing System) approaches at Midland’s airport, known today as Midland International Air and Space Port.  ILS allows pilots to land in conditions that restrict visibility, such as darkness or fog.  To effectively train for ILS, the student pilot wears a hood or helmet attachment that prevents them from seeing anything but their cockpit instruments in order to simulate a real-world experience.  This requires a second pilot to keep watch for other aircraft or hazards.  For this flight, the student flew under the hood in the rear seat, with the instructor pilot in the forward seat. 

                The T-33 was in radio contact with the Midland tower throughout their flight, and successfully performed a touch-and-go on Runway 043 around 14:50pm.  As they departed, they were granted permission for a second approach.  Runway 043 runs east and west, alongside Business Loop 20 (Old Highway 80).

Firefighters at T-33 Wreckage, USAF Report Photo

                Minutes earlier, a Cessna 170A left Ector County Airport bound for Bowie, Texas.  The single-engine prop plane had five souls on board.  The passengers included the pilot, his wife, infant daughter, and his wife’s parents.  The Cessna is believed to have flown north of Midland’s airport, then southeast to the crash site.

                A transcript of the control tower conversations shows that the tower lost contact with the T-33 shortly after their touch-and-go, then smoke was seen rising over Permian Estates.  The airplanes had collided 6.25 nautical miles from the runway at 1000-1200 feet above the ground. 

Cessna Wreckage, USAF Report Photo

                The report shows the T-33 striking the Cessna from behind at a downward angle, slightly to the left side of the Cessna.  The rudder of the T-33 ripped through the thin aluminum structure of the Cessna, which “broke into pieces, throwing the people aboard out of the aircraft.”  The instructor pilot ejected from the aircraft, but did not have sufficient altitude for the ejection seat system to operate.  The report further explains that he didn’t separate from the seat sooner due to a failure of an “oxygen hose quick-disconnect.”  The instructor’s body came to rest near the main wreckage of the T-33.  The student pilot remained  with the wreckage.  The civilian passengers fell over an area covering about seven houses.  Several news and social media reports indicate that a female passenger fell through a roof into a bathtub.  The location of the infant varies, some saying the child was found in shrubs and others claim the child fell into a home.  

                The T-33’s tail separated and fell into a back yard, and the Cessna fell in at least five major pieces.  The engine of the Cessna fell through the roof of a home that was unoccupied at the time.  Parts fell on homes, in yards, and vacant lots.  The main wreckage of the T-33 struck the driveway and a garage of a home and burned.  It was the only fire reported throughout the incident.

The Air Force lists several factors that caused the crash:

1.       “The primary cause of this accident is supervisory error on the part of the Instructor Pilot in that he did not see the other aircraft in time to avoid the collision.”  Since the student was wearing a hood to restrict his vision, the instructor pilot in the front seat was responsible for keeping watch for traffic.  The downward angle of the jet’s impact could indicate the possibility of a last-second attempt to miss the Cessna.

2.       “A contributing cause factor is that current CAA regulations do not require light aircraft to be controlled under VFR conditions in control zones; Midland Tower was not aware of the Cessna’s presence.”  Control zones were much smaller in 1956 than today, and the Cessna stayed out of Midland’s zone throughout the entire flight and probably wasn’t monitoring Midland’s radio traffic.  The Cessna pilot was operating his aircraft in accordance with regulations and practices of the time, and was probably over Midland in order to follow Interstate 20 for part of his flight.  Control zones and traffic procedures have changed drastically, and this sort of incident would be impossible today if procedures are followed.  The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) became the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 1958.

3.       “Installation of the stand-by compass… precludes unobstructed vision forward.”  A significant piece of the T-33 forward pilot’s view was obstructed by instrumentation.

Although the report had the names of the civilian victims redacted, newspaper sources listed them as Winfred Clement (27 years of age at the time of the accident), his wife Elizabeth (25), and their infant daughter, Cathy.  Elizabeth’s parents were also on board, Roy E. Howard (63) and Ethel Howard (57).  The aircraft was registered to Winfred Clement.  The family was buried in Bowie, TX.

Lt. Lowell was buried in Decatur, Illinois.  Capt. Roberts was buried in Trinity Memorial Park, Big Spring, TX.

Ector County Airport became Schlemeyer Field sometime in the 1970’s, and features a T-33 on static display. 

The Air Force report included a map that plots 13 locations of wreckage.  In respect of the crash victims and current property owners, I will only show a modern map of the wreckage area and will not release the specific points. The crash area was published as "the 3500 block of Apache Drive."  

I teamed up with local videographers Tim Kreitz and Michael Montalvo with the intention of filming a documentary about the crash, but we were not able to locate witnesses willing to be interviewed.  There just wasn’t enough material for  a video production without them, and we completely understood their reluctance.  Many thanks to Tim and Mike for helping me assemble all the data on this crash.

This incident is an important piece of Midland's history of military aviation.  As far back as World War II, Midland has served an important role in our nation's air power preparedness, and many lives have been lost.  This is the only local military aircraft incident I've found with civilian casualties. 

Should anyone have photos or witness accounts they wish to share, please contact me at mattvann@suddenlink.net.   I won't publish anything without the contributor's permission.

Cessna 170 Tail, USAF Report Photo

Ejection Seat, USAF Report Photo

T-33 Tail, USAF Report Photo

Models Showing Impact Angle, USAF File Photo

Wreckage Area, Present Day

Update, May 7, 2019:  Podcast epispode:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itjICu8yo2c&t=3177s

Here are a few pages from the local newspaper on the day after the crash:

Lockheed P-38 Lightning Crash in 1945 - Midland, TX

Report Photo

               Midland, Texas and the surrounding area has deep history in World War II military aviation, most of which involves bomber training.  While researching another project, I found a report on a 1945 fatal crash of a Lockheed P-38 Lightning in Midland.  Most accident reports in the area are bomber trainers, so the P-38 was unique.  This particular aircraft crashed shortly after taking off from Midland Municipal Airport, now called Midland Airpark (KMDD),  just a couple of miles from my home.

                On July 31, 1945, 25 year old First Lieutenant  Thomas R. Frederick unsuccessfully attempted to start the engines on a Lockheed P-38L Lightning aircraft on the ramp of Midland Municipal Airport.  Assigned to the 6^th Ferrying Division, he had logged over 500 hours of flight time, with about four hours in the P-38.  A mechanic took his place in the cockpit and found the engines flooded.  Once started, the mechanic performed a run-up and Lt. Frederick got back in the cockpit.  He departed on runway 16 (southbound) for a ferrying mission to Love Field in Dallas.  About two minutes into the flight, Lt. Frederick reported trouble with his right engine which was trailing smoke.

                Several people on the ground, including mechanics, could hear the struggling engine and see the smoke trail.  One mechanic had just left his home for a trip to Pyote.   While at the intersection of “C” and Texas streets, he was directly in line with the runway and saw the distressed aircraft turn back for the field.  As the aircraft entered a downwind leg for a left pattern on the same runway, several witnesses saw that the right engine was completely stopped with the propeller feathered as he flew over the field. About two miles north of the field, Lt. Frederick turned west onto his base leg.   During the turn, the aircraft stalled, dropping the right wing.  Unable to recover from the stall, the aircraft crashed in a pasture about two miles north of the airfield.

Report Photo

                Firefighters and crewmen from the airfield responded immediately and found the aircraft on fire.  Lt. Frederick was unresponsive in the cockpit and rescuers struggled to free him from the twisted wreckage.  Before the crew could unfasten the seat harness, both fire trucks at the scene ran out of water.  The aircraft quickly became engulfed in flames and rescuers had to back away, leaving the pilot inside.  The emotional toll of the loss was evident in their written reports.

                The cause of the engine failure was never determined.  The stall was blamed on an improper single-engine landing procedure.  The pilot had lowered the undercarriage and flaps for a normal landing, which is not procedure for the P-38 on one engine.  The correct procedure was to land with flaps fully retracted and lower the gear as late as possible on final approach.

Lockheed P-38L

                Much of the report is dedicated to the lack of proper firefighting equipment at the airfield, detailing the need more water capacity and asbestos suits.  One officer reported that he believed the pilot would have survived the accident had they been able to fight the fire longer.  A pathology report, however, indicated that Lt. Frederick was most likely killed on impact.

                Photos and reports didn’t pinpoint the exact location of the wreckage, but crash site was on or near the present location of Midland Country Club.  While some wreckage was certainly left behind, the entire area has been developed or plowed and any sign of the aircraft is almost certainly gone.

                While it’s disappointing that I couldn’t call this one a definitive “find,” it was exciting to find a piece of local history that memorialized a lost military aviator. 

Click on the YouTube link for video of the crash site:

Ghosts in the Guads

     There’s plenty of history to be found in the Guadalupe Mountains, from ancient coral reefs to the Butterfield Stage Trail and Native American heritage.  This Texas/New Mexico mountain chain is also a memorial to many aviators, military and civilian, who lost their lives in these rugged heights.  The altitude, location, and weather of these mountains have snagged many an airplane from the sky.  There are over a dozen known crash sites within the Guadalupe Mountains National Park and more in the surrounding mountains.  Because most of these accidents were the result of aircraft striking the ground at cruising speeds in low visibility, very few of these tragedies left survivors.

     Even though the incidents were investigated by civilian or military authorities, the exact location of the crash isn’t always well documented.  The Air Force and other entities maintained maps and databases of crash sites, but much the information has become inaccurate over time.  It’s led to confusion during wildfires and rescue missions because the aluminum remains of an aircraft can look like a fresh crash for decades.  A few people set out to locate these sites and match them to published data.  We’re sometimes called “wreck chasers” or “aviation archaeologists.”

     A couple of friends I met in the Civil Air Patrol in the 1980’s led me into the wormhole of wreck chasing.  As a search and rescue ground team, we sometimes trained in the Guadalupes and visited old crash sites.  We collected stories of lost aircraft and matched sites to the reports.  Around 2010, I found a curious entry in an Air Force database.  Along with a set of errant coordiantes, it said, “Navy TV-2, acft in gully.”  Records were tough to come by for the era of the TV-2, mostly because of Cold War secrecy, and I could find no records of a lost TV-2 in the Guads.

      In 2016, AviationArchaeology.org led me to the report of a Navy TV-1 that crashed near Salt Flat, Texas on February 25, 1954.  The TV-1 is the Navy version of the P-80 Shooting Star and is similar to the TV-2.  The report, complete with photos, detailed the most unique aircraft incident of the area.

     According to the report, Navy pilot LT Henry J. Zieba took off from California that day on a mission to ferry a TV-1 to Naval Air Station Corpus Christi.  After refueling in El Paso, he climbed to an altitude of 18000 feet near Salt Flat Airfield.  For an unknown reason, the starboard tip tank detached from the aircraft.  The pilot explained the sudden problem:

“I found myself in a most uncomfortable position:  On my back and in a tight but flat spin to  the left.”

     The extreme forces of the spin killed the engine and prevented him from reaching the controls to eject, but these same forces also caused the opposite tank to detach.  This restored balance to the aircraft and allowed him to recover from the spin.  Once he righted the aircraft, he found himself at 800 feet above the ground with a great deal of speed.  He attempted an “air start” of the jet engine without success, and was forced to land.  Fortunately for LT Zieba, he wasn’t in the teeth of the mountains, but over the relatively flat surrounding plains.  After running through his ditching checklist, he made a rough landing that covered about 900 feet of ground.  

1954 Navy Report Photo

     He was injured from being slammed around the cockpit during the rough gear-up landing.  He described having pain in his back that was later found to be a severe spine injury.  Despite this, he gathered his gear and walked to a nearby windmill.  He built a signal fire and climbed the windmill to sight the beacon of Salt Flat Airfield at dusk.  He managed to hike 13 miles to the airfield in the dark and was taken to an El Paso hospital.  Henry J. Zieba retired from the Navy in 1969 as Lieutenant Commander, having served in WWII, Korean and Vietnam wars.  He passed away at age 83 in 2006.

LT Henry J. Zieba, courtesy
of Susan Blanchard and Justin Zieba

     The fun part of wreck chasing is hiking, but the real work is in reading reports, gathering data, and spending hours searching aerial photos and satellite images.  Working with permission from park authorities, we made a few hikes to narrow down the search area, but the break came from Dr. Mike Medrano, the Chief of Resource Management for Guadalupe Mountains National Park.  He located a USGS aerial photograph that he suspected was taken in search of the aircraft just three days after the crash.  USGS had photographed the area a few months before the crash, but it's likely a mission was re-tasked to locate it.  Reviewing the photo, I found a scrape on the ground that matched the orientation, dimensions, and location of the crash.  It even looked like an airplane was perched on it.

     We set out to the spot on January 14, 2017 and found what remained of LT Zieba's aircraft.  The bulk of the ship had been removed by a Navy salvage crew. The largest piece was an armor plate that sits forward of the pilot.  Bits of aluminum and steel were scattered about, and much of it was melted.  Although there was no fire when the aircraft landed, it did appear that the wreckage had been piled up and burned.  We found bottle glass and similar material that was foreign to the crash, so it may have become a trash pile when the area was a cattle ranch.  Locals told us that the area was a target range during WWII, so aircraft junk wasn’t anything special in the area at the time.  We took GPS fixes and snapped photos before we sat down to lunch at the site and toasted our success.

Armor Plate

Aircraft Skin

     All of our information was bundled up and sent to the park service to document the site as a historical resource.  The NPS wasn't aware of the crash since it occurred long before the area became a national park.  I made contact with the pilot’s family and sent them the info, and they graciously supplied me with the above photo.  This certainly won’t be our last chase, but I don’t believe we’ll ever experience another one like it.  It was an honor to walk in LCDR Zieba’s steps and bring this story to light.  For all the death faced by fliers in these mountains, a happy ending is always welcome.

PLEASE NOTE:  Aircraft crashes are historical sites.  Not only are many of them honored like a grave site, sites in national parks are federally protected.  It is illegal to remove any artifact from a park.  Should you visit a crash site,  please do so with dignity and respect.