Service marks 75th anniversary of fatal USAF crash

The USAF plane narrowly missed the village of Isleham, crash landing and killing all on board on 13 October, 1949

A service has been held to mark the 75th anniversary of a bomber plane crash during a training flight, which killed all 12 members on board.

The B-50 Superfortress had taken off from RAF Lakenheath on 13 October 1949 when it caught fire soon afterwards.

According to the Isleham Society, the pilot managed to steer the plane, loaded with live bombs and fuel, half a mile away from Cambridgeshire's Isleham village centre to a field where it crashed.

Relatives of those who died and representatives of the US Air Force and the RAF were invited to the remembrance event held at St Andrew's Church in Isleham.

Jeff Stannard, great nephew of the plane's co-pilot Roger Stannard who died, travelled from the US to attend the service

Newspapers stories from the time said the explosion was felt over a wide area with flames spreading to farm buildings.

The Cambridge Independent Press and Chronicle said: "Newmarket and surrounding districts were shaken by an enormous explosion .. [when] the latest type of US bomber still on the secret list, crashed in Isleham."

Local historian Stewart Evans, who carried out research into the crash using original USAF crash reports obtained from the American National Archives, said the plane, a four-engine bomber, was carrying 16 live 500lb (227kg) bombs and also a full fuel tank of 6,700 gallons (approx 30,500 litres).

The paper said it was on a mission to Heligoland, a German archipelago on the southeast corner of the North Sea.

The crash created a crater 30ft by 30ft and 10ft (approx 9m by 9m and 3m) deep.

"American Army Security Police with revolvers and coshes formed a cordon over a quarter of a mile radius from the crash," the paper continued.

"The disintegration of the plane was so complete, that no heap of the wreckage was more than a few feet high."

The service was attended by adults who were children when the crash happened, as well as representatives of the armed forces of the USA and the UK

A doctor interviewed by the paper said one of his patients, a middle-aged woman, "had a narrow escape" while cycling near the scene, as the explosion caused by the crash "blew her off her bicycle".

According to another paper clipping from the Isleham Society, the plane took off in heavy fog, with one eye-witness describing the tail of the plane on fire and shooting sparks as it passed over the village.

Isleham Society said it was holding the service to pay respect to those who died and to "remind us of how, what could have been a catastrophe for the whole village, was averted by their sacrifice".

The site where the plane made its fatal crash is now being proposed as a site for a large solar farm.