During our trip to the USA a post Korean Jet crash site near
Petersham was visited with Police Chief & fellow aircraft wreck
enthusiast, Steve Kozloski of Monson,Mike Cooney,Dave Ramsey
and Louie Allessio.
On arrival at the scene, A large crater with debris from the jet
was found in a forest near Quabbin Reservoir, and the close
compacted wreckage lay much as it has done for the past 50
years.
Having taken off on a routine training flight, the pilot Lt Dewey
B.Durrett, flying at 5,000ft in dense cloud, had been advised
by Westover AFB that a dense snowstorm had affected ground
control approach signals, and as he was low on fuel he was
advised to bale out which he did so at 14.30 hrs over Pelham.
He landed on the Prescott Peninsula relatively unscathed, but
his stricken jet fighter flew on and nose dived into the ground
where it lay undescovered for over 4 years.
It would appear that the pilot,who served with the National
Guard (To which this machine belonged) Also served with
the USAF and & Air Force Reserves until retirement as a Lt/Col.
Dewey B.Durrett sadly passed away on october 14th 2003 and
an Obituary was found in the `Salem Observer` Vol 38 No 25
dated Thursday October 23rd,2003, which says he was born in
Bellington,West Virginia, attended Watercamp School and was
a member of Future Farmers of America , he obtained a Bachlor`s
degree at West VA Univrersity and a Masters Degree in economics
at the University of Massachusetts in Amerst in 1957.
Having served with the Air Force for 20 years he then flew as a
senior Captain for Delta Airlines for 28 years before retiring.
Photo: Found via internet sources for illustration purposes only
and credited to F.J.Adam, whom I hope won`t be offended
by its use on this site, though I would of course remove
it if I have breached any copyright.
F-94 Starfire - Massachusetts.
