Corporal Libbey was an aerial gunner
aboard B-24E Liberator #42-7417, serving
with the 611th Bomb Squadron, 400th Bomb
Group from Charleston Army Airfield, S.C.
Departing the base for an intended four
hour nighttime navigational training
flight, the pilot first flew over his
parents house in Elkin, North Carolina
and signaled before proceeding on a leg
which was to take the aircrew towards
Madison, North Carolina. The bomber flew
along the Mayo River canyon, where at about
10 p.m. they failed to clear 3,000-foot
Bull Mountain, colliding just below the
peak, five miles north of Stuart, Virginia.
Investigators speculated the pilots had
mistaken the Mayo River for the Dan River,
not realizing the terrain marked on their
maps was higher in elevation compared to
where they had plotted their course.
All eleven men aboard perished.
aboard B-24E Liberator #42-7417, serving
with the 611th Bomb Squadron, 400th Bomb
Group from Charleston Army Airfield, S.C.
Departing the base for an intended four
hour nighttime navigational training
flight, the pilot first flew over his
parents house in Elkin, North Carolina
and signaled before proceeding on a leg
which was to take the aircrew towards
Madison, North Carolina. The bomber flew
along the Mayo River canyon, where at about
10 p.m. they failed to clear 3,000-foot
Bull Mountain, colliding just below the
peak, five miles north of Stuart, Virginia.
Investigators speculated the pilots had
mistaken the Mayo River for the Dan River,
not realizing the terrain marked on their
maps was higher in elevation compared to
where they had plotted their course.
All eleven men aboard perished.
Corporal Libbey was an aerial gunner
aboard B-24E Liberator #42-7417, serving
with the 611th Bomb Squadron, 400th Bomb
Group from Charleston Army Airfield, S.C.
Departing the base for an intended four
hour nighttime navigational training
flight, the pilot first flew over his
parents house in Elkin, North Carolina
and signaled before proceeding on a leg
which was to take the aircrew towards
Madison, North Carolina. The bomber flew
along the Mayo River canyon, where at about
10 p.m. they failed to clear 3,000-foot
Bull Mountain, colliding just below the
peak, five miles north of Stuart, Virginia.
Investigators speculated the pilots had
mistaken the Mayo River for the Dan River,
not realizing the terrain marked on their
maps was higher in elevation compared to
where they had plotted their course.
All eleven men aboard perished.
aboard B-24E Liberator #42-7417, serving
with the 611th Bomb Squadron, 400th Bomb
Group from Charleston Army Airfield, S.C.
Departing the base for an intended four
hour nighttime navigational training
flight, the pilot first flew over his
parents house in Elkin, North Carolina
and signaled before proceeding on a leg
which was to take the aircrew towards
Madison, North Carolina. The bomber flew
along the Mayo River canyon, where at about
10 p.m. they failed to clear 3,000-foot
Bull Mountain, colliding just below the
peak, five miles north of Stuart, Virginia.
Investigators speculated the pilots had
mistaken the Mayo River for the Dan River,
not realizing the terrain marked on their
maps was higher in elevation compared to
where they had plotted their course.
All eleven men aboard perished.
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