The remains of an airplane that crashed in 1952 in Death Valley on a flight for the CIA

@ElentirENG ES 6·11·2023 · 23:33 0

As we have seen on other occasions, in the world there are many places that are difficult to access that preserve the remains of very old plane crashes.

A desert in which three strategic bombers from the Cold War are abandoned
An unusual graveyard of Tupolev Tu-22M supersonic bombers in Russia

One of them is located near Panamint Springs, California, on the western edge of Death Valley National Park, which is known as one of the hottest places in the world. The highest temperature in the world was recorded there: 56.7ºC. On the evening of January 24, 1952, a United States Air Force (USAF) Grumman HU-16 Albatross seaplane flew over that area.

The plane had taken off from Mountain Home AFB air base in Idaho and was headed for San Diego, California, according to Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives. When it was flying at an altitude of 11,000 feet (3,352 meters), in the middle of the night, the port engine caught fire. The six occupants of the plane decided to parachute, despite the fact that the other engine was working properly, perhaps out of fear that the plane would explode. The Albatross crashed on Towne Peak, at 7,287 feet (2,221 meters) , in Dolomite Canyon and 11 kilometers from Panamint Springs.

As noted by Worldwarwings.com, the plane belonged to the 580th Air Resupply Squadron of the USAF and at the time of the accident it was making a training flight for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the foreign intelligence service of the United States. USA. Today the remains of the plane are still there. A few days ago, Western Mine Detective posted a video showing those remains:

You can see here some captures of the video. Here we see the mountainous area where the plane crashed.

Here we see the remains of one of the wings. In the center you can see the place occupied by one of the radial engines of the plane.

More remains of one of the wings.

The Albatross fuselage. The thing is more or less intact, despite the weather, with the drift and the stabilizers still in place.