Salt Lake Telegram | 1943-03-05 | Page 1 | Pilot Pulls Fortress out of Nosedive, Lands Safely after 500-Mile Flight without Elevators

Pilot P Pulls S Fortress Out of Nosedive Lands Safely After Mile SOD Flight Without Elevators SOMEWHERE I IN INN N N NEW E B W GUINEA March 5 INS INS INS- Making one of the most amazing flights in the history of this war theater Lieutenant James Diet Diet- of Sprague W. W Va Friday piloted his Flying Fortress Fortress Fortress Fort Fort- ress miles without elevators and made a perfect landing More amazing than the tho flight Itself was the fact that Dieffen- Dieffen derfer and his copilot had pulled the Fortress from a vertical nose dive after the elevators had gone He had put the plane into a power dive to dodge attacking Zeros At 2500 feet the rear gunner Sergeant Ken Mowry of the Bronx yelled The left elevators elevator's ele ale vator's gone Then a few minutes minutes min mm- utes later came My God so has the right one The stick was jerked from hand and the plane went into a nose dive When he failed to budge the stick and the copilot copilot co co- co- co pilot Second Lieutenant Jack Campbell of Fresno Frasno Cal bracketed bracketed bracketed brack brack- eted their feet teet against the Instrument in instrument instrument In- In strument panel straining every ounce of ot weight In an effort to bring the plane out of ot its death dive Miraculously the Fortress r re reL re- re L at 1000 feet Then began began began be be- gan a nightmare flight to the base I 1 landed a and a d e a d on wheels which had been torn tom to toI shreds during his take His I first words when he climbed wearily from the plane pIano were I dont don't believe it I must have had go good d gremlins with ith me A few hours before leavin leaving on Fridays Friday's mission bombardier Second Lieutenant William of Newark Ohio received a cable announcing announcing In ing the birth of a daughter This Is a a. way to celebrate celebrate celebrate cele cele- brate our first baby he said I