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Nile Kinnick Sr. correspondence regarding his son's fatal crash, 1945-1946
1946-01-11: Page 03
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Naval Air Advanced Training Command HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES NAVAL AIR STATION JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA - 2 - prepared to take him on board immediately. When Nile arrived at a point about one mile ahead of the ship (ship was steaming approximately west) he lost all oil pressure and his engine froze. There was nothing he could do but make a water landing. Many of us on the ship saw the landing, knew it to be good, and felt no particular fear for his safety knowing that Nile had splendid reactions and that he was in excellent physical condition. Plane guard destroyers were sent ahead at full speed to pick up Nile and arrived at the spot in not more than three or four minutes after the landing. The Lexington also held course and passed within thirty yards of the spot arriving not more than two minutes later than the destroyers.. Landings had been stopped on the Lexington in order that all hands topside plus planes in the air could join the search. There were literally hundreds of pairs .of eyes searching the immediate location of the crash from advantageous elevations both on the carrier and on the destroyers. The Lexington made at least one more, and I think two more, such passes slowing to bare steerage way each time in order to search the area more thoroughly. Since there were planes aloft who were running low on fuel it was necessary for the carrier herself and one plane guard destroyer to abandon the search and resume landings in order to prevent other pilots from being forced into the water. Air search and destroyer search, however, continued. This search continued as long as there was sufficient light to see and extended over a period of several hours. Bill Reiter was flying with Nile on the flight and was with him right up to the moment of Nile's landing. Bill himself was convinced that he saw Nile out of the cockpit and clear of the plane on his (Bill's) first pass over the spot after the landing. The plane had at that time not sunk. Neither Bill nor anyone else ever saw Nile after the plane sank. It is difficult to identify small objects in the water from a fast moving airplane but Bill was so thoroughly convinced that he had seen Nile in the water that we had to believe him. The fact that no one of the hundreds of people who were searching the exact spot of the landing and the water area around it ever saw Nile after the plane sank led us to believe that Nile became entangled with the plane and was dragged down by it. This could have been caused possibly by a slight injury which left Nile temporarily helpless, or by an entanglement of his emergency equipment with the plane which could easily have been beyond anyone's capacity to cope with. Had Nile remained afloat after the plane sank I believe it to
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Naval Air Advanced Training Command HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES NAVAL AIR STATION JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA - 2 - prepared to take him on board immediately. When Nile arrived at a point about one mile ahead of the ship (ship was steaming approximately west) he lost all oil pressure and his engine froze. There was nothing he could do but make a water landing. Many of us on the ship saw the landing, knew it to be good, and felt no particular fear for his safety knowing that Nile had splendid reactions and that he was in excellent physical condition. Plane guard destroyers were sent ahead at full speed to pick up Nile and arrived at the spot in not more than three or four minutes after the landing. The Lexington also held course and passed within thirty yards of the spot arriving not more than two minutes later than the destroyers.. Landings had been stopped on the Lexington in order that all hands topside plus planes in the air could join the search. There were literally hundreds of pairs .of eyes searching the immediate location of the crash from advantageous elevations both on the carrier and on the destroyers. The Lexington made at least one more, and I think two more, such passes slowing to bare steerage way each time in order to search the area more thoroughly. Since there were planes aloft who were running low on fuel it was necessary for the carrier herself and one plane guard destroyer to abandon the search and resume landings in order to prevent other pilots from being forced into the water. Air search and destroyer search, however, continued. This search continued as long as there was sufficient light to see and extended over a period of several hours. Bill Reiter was flying with Nile on the flight and was with him right up to the moment of Nile's landing. Bill himself was convinced that he saw Nile out of the cockpit and clear of the plane on his (Bill's) first pass over the spot after the landing. The plane had at that time not sunk. Neither Bill nor anyone else ever saw Nile after the plane sank. It is difficult to identify small objects in the water from a fast moving airplane but Bill was so thoroughly convinced that he had seen Nile in the water that we had to believe him. The fact that no one of the hundreds of people who were searching the exact spot of the landing and the water area around it ever saw Nile after the plane sank led us to believe that Nile became entangled with the plane and was dragged down by it. This could have been caused possibly by a slight injury which left Nile temporarily helpless, or by an entanglement of his emergency equipment with the plane which could easily have been beyond anyone's capacity to cope with. Had Nile remained afloat after the plane sank I believe it to
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