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1948 Lake Mead Boeing B-29 crash

21 Jul 1948 · Lake Mead, Nevada, US

United States Air Force Boeing F-13 Superfortress · Controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) due to pilot error

From an unrecorded airport to Armitage Field (now NAWS China Lake), California

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Event

Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
Accident
Event fatalities
0 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
Unknown
Occupants
5
Survivors
5
InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
1
OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
Military

Boeing F-13 Superfortress

Aircraft type
Boeing F-13
Category
Airplane · from aircraft type
RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
45-21847
Onboard fatalities
0
Route
From not recordedTo Armitage Field (now NAWS China Lake), California

Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.

From the Wikipedia article

The 1948 Lake Mead Boeing B-29 crash occurred 21 July 1948 when a Boeing B-29-100-BW Superfortress, modified into an F-13 reconnaissance platform and performing atmospheric research, crashed into the waters of Lake Mead, Nevada. Listed as a National Register of Historic Places site, the wreckage is around 100 feet underwater.

Text from the Wikipedia article “1948 Lake Mead Boeing B-29 crash” (revision 1372081782, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article

Sources

Wikipedia article: 1948 Lake Mead Boeing B-29 crash
Article
1948 Lake Mead Boeing B-29 crash
Revision
1372081782 · 2026-08-30 · retrieved 2026-09-18
Wikidata
Q4566263
Licence
Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
Record
Wikipedia article "1948 Lake Mead Boeing B-29 crash" (page 15516443, revision 1372081782)
Date
Wikipedia infobox: date
Place and country
Wikipedia infobox: site
Map position
none
Aircraft, operator and route
Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
Operation
operator named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
Fatalities
Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
Ground fatalities
not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
Summary
Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
  • Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.