Lt. Charles H. Boyer, Jr.

Lt. Charles H. Boyer, Jr., 27, Fort Worth, Texas, was one of 11 who died in the, April 24, 1944, 3:40 p.m. crash of B-17G (42-102786). The aircraft was on a local transition training flight.

Lt. Milton Hansberry, 23, Seattle, Washington, an instructor pilot, was at the controls. The aircraft had left the base about ten minutes earlier and was circling the Dornick Hills Golf Course, north of Ardmore, at an altitude of 800 to 1,000 feet. Apparently sightseeing, the heavy aircraft exceeded 90-degrees of bank, spun into the ground and burst into flames. All crewmembers perished.

Lt. Boyer, pilot of the training crew, was not at the controls at the time of the crash. It is not known if he was in the co-pilot seat or standing behind the pilot. This flight was probably the first flight of the aircraft with a training crew from Ardmore.

It was delivered new to Ardmore a few weeks earlier and only had 85 hours on the aircraft and engines. The crash was used by the base commander, Colonel Donald W. Eisenhart, as an example to other pilots as “what not to do” in a heavy aircraft close to the ground.