PERSONAL ACCOUNT BY:
WILLIAM J. LANCE
There was a red tailed C-54 on the Berlin run that was a jinx. If
anything was going to happen to any aircraft in the fleet, it
happened
to number "444" first.
I remember one time, just after a good rain, 444 took off, overloaded
of source, when the co-pilot reached for the flap handle and
grabbed the
emergency brake lever. Naturally that killed the flying speed
and the
ship ran off the end of the strip, buried it self up to it’s
belly in
the mud, and there it sat for a week until the ground dried
out so they
could did it out. Bent up the props some but when they got down
to the
gear, there was nothing wrong with it. Once they got a ramp
dug, they
just hooked a cletract on to it and hauled it out. Put new props
on and
it was flying the next day.
But like I said, if it could go wrong, it did, and it happened
to old
number 444 first.
William J. Lance