1951-01-17-pasadena-independent-p2-airline-crash-at-reardan-edwall

January 17, 1951 Pasadena Independent Page 2:

Fiery Airliner Crash in Snowfall Kills Ten

SPOKANE (INS) — Ten persons, seven passengers and three crewmen, lost their lives yesterday in the flaming wreckage of a Northwest Air 36-passenger plane which crashed and burned at Reardan, Wash., 20 miles west of Spokane.

Airlines officials identified the dead passengers as:

W. J. Craft, San Francisco; Charles Wood, Seattle; Mr. and Mrs. G. J. Milligan, Fairfax, Va.; Curtis Edwards, Yakima; W. H. Goodlowe, San Francisco; and Robeft R. Mann, Tacoma.

The crew included: Lloyd Rickman, pilot. Edward Gander, co-pilot, and Joan Tabor, stewardess, all of Seattle.

Minutes after state patrolmen spotted the smoldering wreckage, irlines offices were informed there were “no survivors.”

The plane's captain radioed moments before the crash that the Martin 202 was in trouble. This message was received eight minutes after the plane took off from Spokane for Seattle on a flight: that originated in Minneapolis.

The plane apparently crashed while attempting an emergency landing at the Reardan airport.

Snow blanketing the area, slowed rescuers and ambulances summoned from Spokane.

Mrs. L. E. Bundy, who witnessed the crash, said the airliner came down through a steady fall of snow and crashed on her farm. She said the plane “burst into flames” upon hitting the ground.

Northwest's Air Crash 5th in Firm's History

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (UP) The Northwest Airlines plane which crashed and burned at Reardan, Wash., yesterday was the fifth of Northwest's fleet of 25 Martin planes to crash with a total of 90 lives lost.

The last four crashes have occurred in less than a year.

The Martin is a twin-engined ship, formerly called the Martin 202.

After one Martin plane crashed near Butte, Mont., last Nov. 7. the airlines grounded the planes for a complete inspection “to assure the public and the company that there are no structural deficiencies in the plane.”

Nine days later Northwest re-

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