Blast Rips Big Plane, 8 Killed Superfort Explodes Over Georgia City
Waycross, Ga., Oct. 9, — A B-29 superfortress bomber exploded high over Waycross today, killing eight persons and spreading fragments of bodies and plane over 20 acres. The big four-engine bomber was on a special research mission testing secret electronic equipment, said public relations officer Harold R. Daniel at the plane's base, Warner Robins, Ga. "The whole town" heard a roar "like a terrific thunder clap" and hundreds stood frozen watching the disaster, eyewitnesses said. Four of those aboard leaped from the hurtling wreckage and landed safely by parachute in a farm field. Four bodies were trapped in the tail section, which snapped along with one wing from the main fuselage. Four other bodies were found scattered in two to four feet of water in a swamp at the edge of town where the wreckage fell. Daniel said several civilians were aboard the plane as electronic experts. He said guards were sent by air to recover and protect as much of the confidential equipment as possible. Capt. H. W. Moore of Wilkinsburg. Pa., one of the survivors, said he could not discuss the cause of the explosion or how he and the others escaped. He said the craft was to land "somewhere in Florida." One motor was buried in mud more than 250 yards from the largest remnant of the big plane. The Waycross Journal - Herald, which first reported the crash, said ''flesh, legs and arms are all over the area." A puff of light smoke, like a giant smoke ring, preceded the thunderous roar. Then the plane began ripping apart and plummeting downward. [Bluefield Daily Telegraph | Bluefield, West Virginia | Thursday, October 07, 1948 | Page 1 - Submitted by Janice Rice]


B-29 0n Secret Test Blows Up Over Georgia At Least Eight Killed, Some Survive By Parachuting After Blasted From Plane
WAYCROSS, Ga. — A B-29 Bomber exploded yesterday over Waycross, killing at least eight of its occupants, but "three of four" others survived by pulling their parachute ripcords as they were blown into space. The Superfortress was said to have been on a secret experiment flight, - possibly involving cosmic ray research, when it met disaster high in the clear blue sky over this south Georgia city. Thirteen men, some of them civilians, were reported aboard the plane when it left the Warner-Robins test base near Macon, Ga., an hour earlier. With a roar like a "clap of thunder", the blast ripped the big bomber as it cruised at 8,000 to 10,000 feet over the heart of Waycross, witnesses reported. There was one report that the plane railed a plume of black smoke just before the explosion. The disintegrating bomber fell in smoking fragments covering 20 acres of marshland on the edge of the great Okefenokee swamp. Three bodies were found in the tall section, the largest intact piece of the plane, police reported, another was wedged in a small forward section of the fuselage. Four other bodies, charred and mangled, were pulled from the muck of the marsh. Three men who got down by parachute were brought to a hospital here for treatment. They included the co-pilot, Capt. W. H. Moore of near Pittsburgh, Pa. Moore did not appear to be hurt badly but one of the other survivors was reported seriously injured. A fourth man was reported to have got his chute opened but this was not confirmed and his fate was unknown. [Logansport Pharos-Tribune | Logansport, Indiana | Thursday, October 07, 1948 | Page 19 - Submitted by Janice Rice]

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