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1946 Yan'an United States Air Force C-47 crash

8 Apr 1946 · Heicha Mountain, Xing County, Shanxi, China

United States Army Air Forces DC-3 · Controlled flight into terrain

From Chongqing to Yan'an

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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
17 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
Unknown
Occupants
17
Survivors
0
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
Unknown
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

DC-3

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
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
17
Route
From ChongqingTo Yan'an

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 1946 United States Air Force C-47 crash, known in China as the April 8 Incident, was the crash of US Army Air Force C-47B-1-DL (registration 43–16360) from Chongqing to Yan'an that struck a mountain in Shanxi, China, killing all four crew members and 13 passengers, including several top Communist Chinese leaders.

Accident

The C-47 flight that took off from Chongqing en route to Yan'an had thirteen passengers - all members of the CCP delegation at Chongqing - and the four US military personnel who operated the flight. Among those on the flight were notable Communist Party leaders, including General Ye Ting; General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Qin Bangxian, also known as Bo Gu; former-President of the Central Party School Deng Fa; and Communist Party Central Committee Member Wang Ruofei. Accompanying Ye Ting on the flight were his wife, daughter, son and nanny. According to Wise's father, the aircrafted landed at Xi'an to refuel before ascending once more to fly to Yan'an. While starting to descend the aircraft crashed into the Heicha Mountains (Mt. Black Tea), located 140 mi northeast of Yan'an in Shaanxi Province, killing all 17 people on board

Text from the Wikipedia article “1946 Yan'an United States Air Force C-47 crash” (revision 1362393354, 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: 1946 Yan'an United States Air Force C-47 crash
Article
1946 Yan'an United States Air Force C-47 crash
Revision
1362393354 · 2026-07-03 · retrieved 2026-09-18
Wikidata
Q51979765
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 "1946 Yan'an United States Air Force C-47 crash" (page 64783280, revision 1362393354)
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.