BOMBER EXPLODES

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29170, 2 April 1960, Page 13

BOMBER EXPLODES

Little Rock Disaster LITTLE ROCK (Arkansas), March 31. A six-engined United States Air Force 847 bomber exploded above Little Rock today, killing five persons. Horrified eyewitnesses saw the 847 crumble in the sky. ; Three airmen were killed and two civilians' perished in their homes when part of the bomber crashed in the neighbourhood quarter of a mile south-west of the State Capitol building. It was one of two American military plane crashes today in which a total of eight persons lost their lives.

Off the coast of Florida, six swimmers leaped from a. destroyer into the chilling waters of the Atlantic Ocean today to rescue five survivors of a ditched tanker plane. The destroyer Sullivans had been guided towards the men by their yelling and whistling. The swimmers also found the body of another of the tanker’s crew. Three men died and 11 were saved. The two crashes came on the heels of a tragic series of major commercial and military air disasters which have taken nearly 500 lives this year. The bomber blew up only 10 minutes after it took off from Little Rock Air Force base on a routine training flight. Part of the bomber crashed in a modest neighbourhood a quari ter of a mile fcouth-west of ‘the State Capitol building, tearing a crater 25 feet wide and eight feqt deep Into a comer lot.