[T43NR2W]

In February 1957 I was employed by the Department of the Army as a civilian in Japan. On 22 February 1957 my wife, daughter, and I were returning to Japan from re-employment leave in Florida. We crossed the Pacific on a USAF C-97 Stratocruiser, tail number 92591. We departed from Travis AFB at 22/1427 bound for Hickam AFB and returned to Travis AFB at 22/1559 due to engine trouble. We again left Travis AFB at 22/2245 for Hickam AFB to Haneda AB via Wake and had no further aircraft problems. Almost exactly a month later on 21 March 1957 a USAF C-97 Stratocruiser departed Wake bound for Japan (probably Haneda AB but the destination could have been Tachikawa AB). The aircraft never arrived in Japan and was lost somewhere between Wake and the east coast of Japan. All I can find on the internet was that it was lost on 21 March 1957 with 67 people aboard. Sometime in the 1970s while transiting Travis AFB I noted a plaque in the terminal honoring the crew/passengers of that lost aircraft. I tried to get in touch with the base historian but could not contact him in the short time that I had. Over the years I have wondered whether that lost aircraft was the same one that my family and I flew on a month earlier and whether that engine problem we had might have happened again with disastrous results.

I would like to obtain more information on that lost aircraft.

[FlyYakker]

Is it the one listed here? Aviation Safety Network > ASN Aviation Safety Database > 1957