Lt. Loren Crites, Died April 24, 1944

The 11-member crew of B-17G (42-102786) from Ardmore Army Air Field died, April 24, 1944, at approximately 3:40PM. Lt. Loren Crites, 25, who previously served with the Royal Canadian Air Force, was the assigned co-pilot for the aircraft. He was from Cape Girardeau, Missouri. It is assumed that he was not occupying that position on this flight. An instructor pilot, Lt. Milton Hansberry, 23, who flew with different crews each day, was at the controls.  Lt. Charles H. Boyer, Jr, 27, the assigned pilot of the training crew, was probably flying as co-pilot. It is not known if Lt. Crites was standing behind one of the seats, flying as assigned co-pilot or was elsewhere in the plane. The aircraft had left the base ten minutes earlier with full fuel tanks on a crew indoctrination training flight. This flight was probably the first flight of this aircraft with a training crew. It was delivered new a few weeks earlier and only had 85 hours on the aircraft and engines. The plane was circling the Dornick Hills Golf Course, north of Ardmore, at an estimated altitude of 800 to 1,000 feet, apparently sightseeing. After a few circles, the heavy aircraft exceeded 90-degrees of bank, spun into the ground and burst into flames. Hoping to prevent similar accidents, the base commander, Colonel Donald W. Eisenhart, used this crash as an example of “what not to do” in a heavy aircraft close to the ground.