6 Group Unavailable
Nomad aircraft 02915 was a Lend-Lease aircraft destined for Russia. It departed Elizabeth City, North Carolina, USA 1945-01-11 on the first flight leg from Elizabeth City to San Juan, Puerto Rico, on a delivery flight to via the Southern ferry route but crashed shortly after take-off. The pilot lost his bearings after switching from flying by sight to instrument flying. Once he flew past the lighted buoys on the river, he felt the aircraft was rising too quickly and turned downwind, plummeting into the Pasquotank River near Elizabeth City, killing five of the nine crew
The Russian crews were exposed to much different conditions in America than those in their homeland. Aircraft returning to the USSR were often loaded with alcohol, cigarettes and other luxury items and there is some speculation that a contributing factor in the crash is that the aircraft may have been over-weight at take-off
Canadian civilian Radio Officer PH Nataros, who may have also been serving as an interpreter, Russian Lieutenant A Borodin, Russian Pilot HN Chikov, Russian Navigator VM Levin and Russian Senior Lieutenant DM Medvedev were all killed in the crash
There has been little detail found on either those who lost their lives or those that survived. The aircraft does appear in the Ocean Bridge book by Carl Christie as being flown by RAF Transport Command. The Nomad was likely flown by survivor Captain IR Dobbin, possibly a Canadian and in the RCAF. Both he, and Flight Engineer M Freedman (nationality undetermined), were likely with RAF Transport Command. The other survivors were likely a Russian Lieutenant VP Djachenko and a Russian Chief Sarikov
This aircraft was part of a top secret program conducted by the US Navy and Soviet Russia based in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, USA, called Project Zebra. During the program, the US Navy trained over 300 Russian aviators to fly amphibious bombers for use against German and Japanese submarines using the PBN-1 Nomad, a variation of the Catalina PBY-5 and built by the Naval Aircraft Factory at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in Pennsylvania, USA between October 1943 and June 1945. The program documentation was not declassified by the US government until December 31, 2012
Ocean Bridge, The History of RAF Ferry Command by Carl A Christie page 326
Flying Cats, The Catalina Aircraft in World War II by Andrew Hendrie, pages 94-5
US Navy and US Marine Corps BuNos Third Series (00001 to 13216)
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