Pictures of fatal plane 1948 crash on moors outside Sheffield
Peter Wolstenholme, who as a child saw the Mi Amigo wartime plane about to crash in Sheffield, took these pictures at Bleaklow after a friend told him about another crash site.
Peter wrote: “Boeing B29 Superfortress 44-61999 named Overexposed of USAF Strategic Air Command, flying from Scampton to Burtonwood, crashed near Higher Shelf Stones, Bleaklow on November 3, 1948 with the death of all 13 on board.
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Hide Ad“Two photos were given to me by the late Bert Riggs, who I worked with at Osborn Mushet Tools.
“Bert, a keen hiker-photographer, took photos of the wreckage one Sunday shortly after the accident.
“He gave me the map reference of the site and I took photos in the early 1970s.
“As an eight-year-old playing at the end of Scotia Close, Manor Estate February 1944, I saw an American bomber flying low overhead with one propeller stopped, trailing smoke and large holes in the tail and fuselage.
“This later proved to be Mi Amigo.
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Hide Ad“I remember it because we rarely saw bombers, most of the airfields were in North East Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk, so bombing missions would take them away from Sheffield over the North Sea.”
The crash site is one of still where walkers can spot wreckage on the moors around Sheffield and in the Peak District. A memorial to the men killed was placed on the site in 1988.
According to the Aviation Safety Network website, aviation-safety.net, the crash took place on a routine flight, days before the crew who to return to the US.
It is not known why pilot Captain Tanner failed to fly high enough to clear the high ground on the moors.
On July 1, 1946 the plane flew over Bikini Atoll to take photographs of another B29 Superfortress, ‘Dave’s Dream’, doing an atomic bomb test.