1943 Gillam plane crash

The 1943 Gillam plane crash was an aviation accident and wilderness survival ordeal in southeast Alaska involving a Morrison-Knudsen Construction Company Lockheed 10-B Electra, registration NC14915, piloted by Alaska aviator Harold Gillam. The aircraft crashed on January 5, 1943, during a flight from Boeing Field in Seattle to Annette Island Army Airfield in the Territory of Alaska, while en route to Anchorage. The aircraft suffered left-engine failure in severe weather and crashed in mountainous terrain about 30 miles east of Ketchikan, Alaska, near Boca de Quadra.

All six occupants initially survived. Passenger Susan Winch Batzer died from injuries about 48 hours later. Gillam later left the wreck site to seek help and died of exposure and freezing. The four surviving passengers—Joseph H. Tippets, Percy "Sandy" Cutting, Robert Gebo and Dewey Metzdorf—remained lost in winter conditions until Tippets and Cutting reached tidewater and were rescued on February 3, 1943. Gebo and Metzdorf were rescued from an inland camp on February 7 by civilian guides and U.S. Coast Guard personnel.

The accident became a prominent Alaska aviation survival story because of Gillam's reputation as a bush pilot, the length of the survivors' ordeal, and the subsequent Coast Guard rescue effort.

Background

Gillam was one of Alaska's best-known early bush pilots. Later accounts describe him as a pilot whose reputation was built on flying in weather and terrain that other pilots avoided. At the time of the accident, he was chief pilot for Morrison-Knudsen's Alaska operations. The Civil Aeronautics Board reported that Gillam held a commercial pilot certificate for single- and multi-engine aircraft, landplanes, seaplanes and instrument flying, and had accumulated approximately 7,412 flight hours, including about 757 hours in the type of aircraft involved in the crash.

The accident occurred during World War II, after Japanese forces had occupied Attu and Kiska in the Aleutian Islands. The Annette Island airfield was part of a military airfield chain linking Seattle with Alaska and the Aleutians, and Morrison-Knudsen was one of the civilian contractors involved in building wartime facilities in Alaska.

Accident

Gillam departed Boeing Field at approximately 1:27 p.m. on January 5, 1943, after receiving clearance and weather information for the flight to Annette Island. According to the CAB report, Gillam initially flew at lower altitude under broken clouds, then climbed to about 9,000 feet and later entered an overcast at about 5:10 p.m., continuing on instruments.

The CAB found that Gillam and Gebo, who was seated in the copilot's seat and assisting with navigation, believed they had picked up the Annette radio range and were near their destination. At about 6:25 p.m., after a series of heading changes and while at approximately 7,000 feet, the left engine stopped. Gillam called the Ketchikan radio station and advised that the left engine had failed and that he thought the aircraft was in trouble. Later aviation-history accounts quote the message as "one engine conked out, expect trouble."

The aircraft then entered a violent downdraft, and Gillam abandoned further radio communication while attempting to recover control. The Electra broke out beneath a ragged overcast at about 2,500 feet, headed north and parallel to a mountain ridge. Gillam shut down the right engine, aimed toward a clearing and pulled the aircraft into a stalled attitude for a crash landing. The right wing sheared two tall trees, the aircraft turned about 90 degrees to the right, struck the ground on the stub of the broken right wing and lower fuselage, and came to rest upright.

The official report placed the crash at approximately 6:30 p.m. on a heavily timbered mountainside about 30 miles east of Ketchikan, at an elevation of approximately 2,400 feet above sea level. A March 1943 account in The Cordova Daily Times, based on Tippets's recollections, similarly described the aircraft as having crashed into a mountaintop east of Ketchikan during a snowstorm and Alaskan night.