This aircraft departed Lowery Field, Colorado, on a ferry flight to Chico Army Airfield in northern California.  It was on an Instrument Flight Plan due to the bad weather on the route.  The route was from Lowery Field to Cheyenne, Wyoming, then to Reno, Nevada and on to Red Bluff, California.  Chico AAF is thirty-five miles southeast of Red Bluff.

     The crew members were, Lt. Wayne B. Powell (pilot), Lt. Robert M. Evans (copilot), and Lt. Charles S. Moffett (Flight Engineer).  Also onboard, was S/Sgt.  Jerome L. Seck.

    The aircraft was still at it's cruising  altitude of 16,000 feet when it arrived over the Red Bluff Radio Range.  A steeper than normal descent was necessary to arrive over Chico at the pattern altitude of approximately 1,500 feet.

    At 19:00 (local time), Lt. Powell called Chico Tower and requesting landing instructions.  He gave his position as five miles southwest at 7,000 feet.  He was given the standard landing instructions for left traffic to runway 14 and told to report turning onto base leg.  Left downwind to this runway  would put the aircraft over the low sloping hills to the east of the airfield, which vary in altitude up  to about 1,600 feet.

    After acknowledging the landing instructions, Lt. Powell continued the descending approach.  The tower then turned on the runway lights in preparation for the B-29's arrival and  went back to business as usual.

    Aboard the aircraft, Lt. Powell turned onto the downwind leg, and called for the landing gear to be lowered.  He then asked S/Sgt. Seck to look out the rear bubble window  to insure the gear was coming down OK.

    Seck had gone to the rear of the aircraft to start the "putt putt" in preparation for landing. He left that station and proceeded to the bubble window to  watch the landing gear come down.  As he gazed out the window with a lamp, he was alarmed to see the terrain raising so rapidly.  He felt something was wrong, because not enough time had passed since the gear started down for them to be landing.

    S/Sgt. Seck had a good reason to be alarmed, as you will read in the new book from Info Net Publishing.  This new book "Aircraft Wreck in The Mountains and Deserts of California", (3rd edition), by G. Pat Macha and Don R. Jordan is now available . Contact Don for ordering instructions.