PRESTON, Benjamin, CAPT

Blinding snow and aircraft have never been a good match. On the night of January 22, 1957, it became a deadly combination for the crew of a four-engine, U.S. Navy R5D-3 transport (BuNo. 50869), a military version of the DC-6.

Although the name might be deceiving, Willow Run Airport, outside Ypsilanti, Michigan, was not a small out of the way airport. In 1957, the airport was Detroit's main commercial field about 25 miles southwest of the city with the latest radar and instrument approach equipment. For the time, it was equipped to handle aircraft in all but the most adverse weather conditions.

The Navy R5D-3 was attached to Naval Air Station Glenview, a air station used for reserve training. Earlier in the week the R5D-3 along with another one, had transported aircrews to Naval Air Station Miramar just north of San Diego. At the time NAS Miramar was used primarily to prepared and supported carrier groups in the Pacific.

Flight Back Home...

On board the plane as it left California for the return trip was its crew Lt. Joseph Pietro, 32 of Chicago, Ens. Thomas Burke, 22, of Chicago; Aviation Machinist 1/C Floyd Birt, 31, of Arlington Heights, Ill. and Aviation Machinist 1/C Adolph Meisch, 30, of Glenview, Ill. There were also two others on board for the trip. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. William Sale, 35, from San Diego was hitching a ride to Detroit where he had planned to pick up a new car right from the factory. Seaman Eric N. Starr, 20, of Boston, had 20 days leave and was hitching a ride home.

Sale was the public works officer for Coast Guard Air Station San Diego in addition to being a very experienced pilot with over 3,700 hours of flight time.

As it headed back east, the R5D-3 detoured to Albuquerque to pick-up a special cargo. Their cargo was the body of Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charles R. Walton, for transport back to his home in Birmingham, Michigan, outside Detroit, for burial. The 38-year-old naval reservist had been killed when two Navy F9F Cougar jets collided near Albuquerque the Sunday night. Accompanying the casket was Commander Benjamin G. Preston of Glenview, Ill.

Cmdr Preston had been involved in the flight in which Walton had been killed. Preston was leading a formation of three jet fighters as they were approaching Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. He signaled his wingman to alter the formation for landing. Walton's jet locked wings with another jet flown by Lt. Jerome H. Fishel at 1,000 feet. Both were killed in the crash.

Prepare for Landing...

As the plane settled into the glide path for an Instrument Landing System (ILS) landing at Willow Run Airport, the ceiling was closing in rapidly. Snow had begun falling heavily only 20 minutes earlier and the ceiling had dropped from 900 feet to only 550 feet.

The pilot, Lt. Pietro, had already said that if they had any trouble with the ILS landing that they would go on to Grosse Ile Naval Air Station in Detroit. That airfield was equipped for Ground Controlled Approaches, which the R5D-3 was better outfitted for.

"We were given a ceiling of 900 ft. and our pilot decided that when we reached 800 ft. if we didn't have the ground in sight we would take a 'wave-off' and proceed to Grosse Ile NAS where we would be able to land using a GCA approach." Meisch said. "We had just started to level off when we touched down and all hell broke loose. I was standing at the time of the accident, about to give the pilot climb power. Floyd Birt was standing behind me and was ready to turn on the landing lights as soon as we had the runway in sight, which of course we never saw."

It was 9:33 p.m. and the plane was just two minutes from landing, when it crashed into an old gravel pit, between two ice covered ponds. The plane had apparently touched down on its wheels on one of the ponds and traveled about 100 feet before hitting a small bank and then bouncing another 126 feet through the air. It then hit the pond again and traveled about 134 feet before one of the engines was ripped off against the pond's bank. After skidding nearly 200 feet, the wings were torn off as the fuel, spilling from the wing tanks, burst into flames. As the fire lit up the night sky, a near blinding snow storm was pounding the area.

Earlier in the flight, Meisch, had crawled up into one of the racks in the back an gone to sleep. During his sleep he had a very detailed nightmare that the plane had crashed. "After the crash, I was laying in the snow and I kept telling myself it was just the dream."

Seaman Starr was the first one out of the crash and ran to a nearby home to get help for the others he believed were stilled trapped in the plane.

As flames from the fire leaped into the air, Pietro and Birt were able to pulled three from the burning wreckage. Soon, people from the surrounding neighborhood along with fire fighters and state troopers were battling the blaze and aiding the injured. For over an hour, fire fighters fought the conflagration that was punctuated with occasional small explosions.

Nearly an hour after the crash, ambulances were finally able to get through the snow storm to the scene and take the crew to local hospitals for treatment. Pietro, Burke and Starr received relatively minor injuries.

Birt sustained a broken leg and numerous cuts and bruises, while Preston suffered a broken right leg, injuries to his head and right arms.

Perhaps the most seriously injured was Meisch. He received a fractured jaw, several fractures to his chest and left leg, plus numerous cuts and bruises. He spent many months recovering in the hospital and to this day his left leg it shorter than the other by an inch because of the injuries sustained in the crash.

Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. William Sale wasn't so lucky. According to Birt, Sale had taken the co-pilot position for the latter part of the flight. "Sale took over as co-pilot on the flight because he had a lot of experience in an R5D-3 while our executive office didn't have very much." It turned out to be a fatal decision for Sale. "His seat was the only one that broke loose in the crash," Birt said.

Birt had pulled Sale from the wreckage. "He was alive and groaning when I pulled him was the plane," Birt said. "But it was obvious his back was broken."

Meisch said it was his understanding that since Sale was very tall he had set his seat back as far as it would go. Apparently it had not latch properly and on impact broke the stops on the seat, throwing his forward.

Although they managed to get Sale free of the wreckage, he died en route to the hospital.

Back in San Diego, it was midnight when Coast Guard officers from the air station arrived at the Sale home to tell his wife Sonya of the accident and her husband's death. Besides a wife, Sale also left a 4-year-old son.

Final Findings on the Cause of the Crash
According to Meisch, the cause of the accident was attributed to a faulty altimeter reading caused by a frozen moisture drain on the Pitot Static System. As a result, it caused altimeter readings to lag as the plane descended. Also, one of the reasons Meisch's injuries were so severe was because at the time it was necessary for the engineer to stand during take-offs and landings. After the crash, a center seat, behind the pilot and co-pilot, was added for the flight engineer.