An Ill-Fated Plane Crash in Huntingdon, Tennessee

https://www.facebook.com/reel/851480247004438

Above is a link to the video presentation made at the Huntingdon TN Historical Society meeting on this plane crash. The storyteller was local attorney Kent Jones.

On February 26, 1954, aboard a Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar, a crew of four people took off from Fort Benning-Lawson Air Force Base in Columbus, Georgia on a training flight to Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. The crew consisted of the following:

1st Lt Jack C. Jenkins, pilot,
2nd Lt John C. Peachey, copilot,
A2c Franklin D. Levy, flight engineer,
A2c David A. Probus, flight engineer.

The pilot, 1st Lt Jack C. Jenkins, was from Huntingdon, Tennessee. Lt. Jenkins was an experienced pilot with an unblemished record. He had flown combat missions in Korea. As he was from Huntingdon, it had been a goal of his to buzz the town of Huntingdon. After leaving Fort Benning, Lt. Jenkins had decided to modify his schedule and Lt. Jenkins flew towards Huntingdon, Tennessee.

As Lt. Jenkins approached the town of Huntingdon, he dropped to 700 feet and went over the courthouse and the High School and the Elementary School. There children outside playing on the playground at this time. Jenkins then turned toward the town of Bruceton, turned, and headed to downtown Huntingdon. He aimed toward the courthouse.

At the time, there were about 50 people on the second floor of the courthouse and about 30 people on the first floor and basement of the courthouse. Business in the town stopped and everyone looked skyward. While headed to the courthouse, Lt. Jenkins realized that he was too low and he attempted to raise the plane. The plane’s speed was about 240 knots and, due to the stress on the plane, rivets on the plane started to pop off. The plane clipped the top of a house. The plane missed the courthouse by about five yards.

Unable to raise the plane and divert the accident, the plane crashed into a cornfield (present day Walmart parking lot). The plane caught fire and all four men who were in the plane perished. Burning gasoline from the plane injured two men who had been working in a nearby field.

Above, 1st Lt. Jack C. Jenkins and Homer Demoss, a Huntingdon native who was injured during the plane crash.

Above, picture of the crashed plane.

Above, a picture of a Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar.

Lt. Jenkins had graduated from Huntingdon High School, and then from Bethel College. When the Korean War broke out, Lt. Jenkins enlisted in the Air Force. When his overseas tour was over, he was placed into the 777th Troop Carrier Squadron. On the date of the crash, the three other crew members in the plane were inexperienced.

Besides the presentation by Kent Jones, information for this article came from the following sources: the Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives, the Aviation Safety Network, and sammcgowan.com.