1945 Manus air accident
United States Air Force Douglas DC-4 · Collision with terrain
From Lorengau Airfield, Lorengau, Territory of New Guinea to Sorido Airfield, Biak, Indonesia
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
- 21 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- 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
- 0
- 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
Douglas DC-4
- Aircraft type
- Douglas DC-4
- 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
- 44-9043
- Operator
- United States Air Force
- Onboard fatalities
- 21
- Route
- From Lorengau Airfield, Lorengau, Territory of New GuineaTo Sorido Airfield, Biak, Indonesia
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 1945 Manus air accident occurred on 5 May 1945, when a United States Army Air Forces Douglas C-54E-1-DO Skymaster transport aircraft struck terrain on Manus Island in the Territory of New Guinea (now part of Papua New Guinea). The aircraft departed Lorengau for Biak in Indonesia, but after takeoff did not turn to avoid the rising terrain. It struck a cliff at a height of about 150 metres. On board were 15 passengers and six crew members, and all were killed in the accident.
After the accident the crew and passengers were declared dead, and after the bodies were found they were buried on Manus Island. After the war the bodies were exhumed and transported to the Philippines and the United States. Four of those on board are buried in Manila, the rest reportedly in the United States. The suspected cause of the accident was that the flaps had been raised too soon after takeoff.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Finnish Wikipedia article “Manusin lento-onnettomuus 1945” (revision 17443577, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
Finnish Wikipedia article: Manusin lento-onnettomuus 1945
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 17443577 · 2018-07-18 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q55670385
- 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
- fi Wikipedia article "Manusin lento-onnettomuus 1945" (page 1463708, revision 17443577), translated into English with AI assistance
- 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 article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Finnish Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.