This aircraft departed Mather Air Force Base, near Sacramento, California at 8:00 PM on the evening of August 25, 1954, for a night, low-level navigational training mission.  Onboard was Instructor Pilot Ray J. Carroll and seven other crew members.  The crew members were: Lt. Edward R. Bane Jr. (pilot), Lt. Peter D. McArthur (co-pilot), Lt. Dean C. Harsch, (Instructor Navigator), Harold E. Shellenberger ( Student navigator "S.N."), John T. Sullivan (S.N.), William R. Wood (S.N.) and Lt. Robert W. Gustafson (Navigator).

 There were three pilots, two qualified navigators and three student navigators onboard that night, and yet somehow the aircraft became lost in marginal weather, and at 11:32 PM,  it smashed into a mountain ridge at the 1,743 foot level, instantly killing all on board.  It was a routine mission, flown many times by the training staff at Mather Air Base.  But this time it would end in tragedy.

 The flight crew and instructors had been briefed in Base Operations for a training flight that would take them over a route in the Salinas Valley and back to Mather.  However, that mission was canceled because of very poor weather along the route.  Instead it was decided to take another route of equal length, so that the students could get the same training time.

 The new route would take the aircraft as far north as Chico, and as far south as Bakersfield before returning to Mather.  In addition, the original aircraft scheduled for Lt. Carroll and the students to fly that night (#44-86838) was removed from service due to maintenance problems.  In its place, aircraft #44-86783 was substituted.

 The weather was marginal in both the Sacramento Valley to the north, and the San Joaquin Valley to the south, but all involved felt that the flight could proceed without difficulty.  Generally, the month of August is a hot, dry month in the Sacramento area.  But that night there was rain and clouds to the north, with the ceiling reported as "4,500 feet overcast," and visibility reported to be ten miles.  But the overcast sky would mean a very dark night at the lower levels, with very poor contrast between the cloud formations and the mountain tops.  The weather improved somewhat to the south with an overcast sky reported at 14,000 feet over Fresno, and completely clear over Bakersfield.

 After completing the pre-flight inspection on the aircraft, and briefing the students as to what was expected of them, the aircraft departed Mather and headed north.  In the control tower at Mather Air Base, the conversations between the tower and the aircraft were being recorded, so the last few radio transmissions from TB-25J, number 44-86783 were recorded verbatim.  Ironically, the pilots mistakenly used the radio transmitter instead of the "Interphone" in the last few seconds of flight and were on the air and could be heard at the moment of impact. The conversation was recorded, but nobody knew at the time that the aircraft had crashed.

 Approximately thirty minutes after departing Mather, #783 called Mather Tower, (call sign "Tamale") from a position over Dunnigan, California, which is about fifty miles northwest of Mather Air Base.  The pilot reported poor visibility and rain showers in that area.

 At 9:13 P.M., the aircraft was back over Mather Air Base and reported: "Tamale, 6783 is over Mather at 4,000 feet, southbound."

 The next position report  came at 10:15 PM  while the aircraft was passing over Porterville which is one hundred and ninety nautical miles south of Mather.  This meant that the aircraft was averaging 218 M.P.H. on that leg of the flight.  The maximum speed of a B-25 is reported to be around 272 M.P.H., so 218 M.P.H. is about right for a cruising speed.  At that time the aircraft was at 2,500 feet.

 The next report came at 11:00 PM. By that time the aircraft had passed over Bakersfield and was on the return leg back to Mather.  The pilot reported; "Ten miles east of Modesto, altitude 2,500 feet, north bound."  Modesto is a small farming town in the San Joaquin Valley and is about half way between Bakersfield and Mather Air Base.  The navigators had the aircraft directly on course!

 Twenty-five minutes later, the aircraft was heading north in the vicinity of Travis Air Force Base, east of Mather about fifty miles, and approaching what they thought was the  town of Dixon, California.  Dixon was a student changeover point.  It was later determined that the aircraft was off course to the west about fifteen miles,  and was in fact approaching the small town of Vacaville.  To the north of Dixon is the fairly low terrain of the Sacramento Valley, but north of Vacaville are the Vaca Mountains that rise up to about 2,300 feet and crest on Rocky Ridge. At that moment the aircraft was heading north toward the Vaca Mountains at more than 200 miles per hour.  As long as the aircraft stayed at 2,500 feet, it would just clear the mountains by no more than 200 feet.

 The weather near Travis was apparently getting worse, when at 11:25 PM, the pilot called the Mather Tower and stated:

  6783:   "Tamale, this is 6783."

  Tower: "6783, Tamale"

  6783:  "Roger, Tamale, 783, we are about 40 miles west of your station.   What's your weather over there now?"

  Tower: "Estimated 7,000 overcast, visibility 10 miles.

  6783:   "Roger, 7,000 overcast and 10 miles.  We got about 2,000 foot ceiling over here just east of Travis.  The visibility is way down."

  Tower:   "Roger 83, thank you."

 At that point there was other radio traffic recorded at the Mather tower.  It was a busy night, with many aircraft in the air and some just taking off.  But soon 6783 was back on the radio with:

  6783:              "Tamale, 6783"

  Tower:            "783,  Tamale"

  6783:               "Tamale, 6783, Do you have the weather up at Chico?"

  Tower:             "783, negative.  We can't get it from the weather station-they haven't got it."

 At this point the pilots of 6783 did not realize that all his conversations began going out over the radio for all to hear.  The conversation within the plane, as recorded in the Mather Tower, is as follows:

 "Instructor to lead–instructor from pilot–Go ahead–Okay, Fly your instruments now–Instructor from pilot– Go ahead–instructor–interphone–are you on the interphone–AAAHHH–I don't know, this scud doesn't look too thick--what do you think?"

 At that moment, a witness at a Boy Scout Camp in the Vaca Mountains, near the small town of Monticello, observed the aircraft pass overhead on a northerly heading.  After passing the witness, the plane was observed to make a turn to the east.

 The tape recording in the Mather Control tower continues with the voice of the instructor onboard 6783 as he gives instructions to a student who is obviously lost and having difficulty.

 "Keep taking her down a little bit--Take her down--Let's go–Let's get on the ball–Where do you want to go!–Where do you want to go!!–Where do you want to go!!!"

  At that point, another aircraft cut in with: "Let's get on the interphone, whoever that is!"
But 6783 didn't hear the other aircraft and the instructor continued to admonish his student:

 "AAAAAHHHHHH, now start letting her down–Go to 65 degrees . . . . . . ." CRASH!

 The remainder of the sentence was cut off when the aircraft struck the side of Rocky Ridge.  At the Boy Scout Camp, the witness observed a large fire ball on the ridge line which momentarily turned the sky a dull orange, and then heard a muffled rumble.

 In the control tower, the recording continued with other routine traffic;

  A/C 6693:        "Tamale, 6693, over"

  Tower:            "693, Tamale–go ahead"

   6693:              "Roger, 693, over Galt for landing instructions, request permission to enter on downwind, over."

 And so it went for the remainder of the night.  Only after 6783 failed to return to base that night, did they realize something had gone wrong.  And indeed it had!  The wreckage of the TB-25J burned all night on the lonely mountain ridge.  The spot was faintly illuminated and visible from the Boy Scout Camp far below.

 In the black of night, it is likely the pilot of 6783 never saw the approaching ridge line.  Cruising at 2,500 feet, the aircraft was interring a layer of clouds at 2,000 feet that concealed the ridge.  The final words from the instructor to the student were: "Now start letting her down."  It was a fatal mistake!

  When rescue teams reach the site the next day, it was determined that no one could have survived the impact and fire.   The exact time of the crash was determined by placing a wristwatch, found in the wreckage, under a "black Light".  This procedure showed that the watch had stopped at thirty seconds past 11:32 PM.

 The wreckage of the aircraft was scattered over an area of 285 feet on an incline of approximately seventy degrees.  The terrain was very rough and difficult for the rescue personnel to get to.  At the moment of impact, the airplane was flying in a wings level attitude at over two-hundred miles per hour.  The speed was calculated from the scars the tips of the propellers made in the loose soil.

 From the impact marks, it was determined that the nose section and both engines hit the ground at almost the same instant.  The aircraft then bounced back into the air and continued on for an additional one-hundred and fifty feet.  At the point of the second impact, the aircraft slammed into a large assortment of eight foot high boulders.  Then the aircraft immediately caught fire and  exploded.

 Both propellers were torn loose from the engines at the point of initial impact, but both engine separated from the wings at the point of the explosion and fire.  The tail section, with the twin rudders was found intact, but in an inverted position.  The propeller blades were bent forward, indication a "power on" condition at impact.  The nose and cockpit section were reduced to ash and melted metal by the intense post-crash fire.

 The primary cause of this accident was that the navigator became lost and misidentified the check point over Dixon.  It appears that the instructor soon realized the situation and was trying to get the student to correct his heading.  His words to the student were: "Where do you want to go!" were repeated three times, each time with more emphasis applied.

 Then, when the student gave the appropriate answer, the instructor told him to turn to a heading of 065 degrees and start to let down.  The instructor's words were; "Aaaaahhhh now start letting her down–go to 65 degrees."

 The order to "let down" and make a turn toward Mather Air Base, was an indication that the instructor was aborting the mission and returning to base.  Several aircraft in the same area had already aborted earlier that night due to the weather.  A few minutes before the crash, the pilot of 6783 asked another aircraft in the vicinity if he was going to abort.  The reply was "Yes".

 The decision to turn to a heading of 065 degrees, and start a letdown sealed the fate of this young crew!  Weather was, and still is,  the number one cause of aviation accidents.