After aborting a radar search mission on July 15 because No. 1 engine of an LB-30 piloted by 2d. Lt. Clement Telep was not producing power, Lt. Telep returned the aircraft to Rio Hato Air Base. When the problem could not be duplicated on a ground check of the aircraft, Lt. Telep his co-pilot 2d.Lt.Theodore B. Small SSgt. Steve M. Taylor and SSgt. Earl Stopher, two other crew members MSgt. William Armstrong, the line chief, and the crew chief, another sergeant, name unknown, re-boarded the old bomber for a test hop, in anticipation of returning to base for the rest of the crew if the hop proved the plane was okay. The test showed the balky engine still was not developing proper power, and as Lt. Telep headed the LB-30 on the downwind leg of the landing pattern, the engine began to burn. Fire extinguishers only caused the blaze to falter momentarily before blistering back to life. The electric prop would not feather. Lt. Telep climbed the LB-30 to afford the aircrew an altitude of about 900 feet from which to bail out. Lt. Telep ordered Lt. Small, whose parachute got soaked with water, rendering it unusable, to go back to the waist of the Liberator and jump with one of the spare chutes left by the other crew members still waiting on the ground. Lt. Small and SSgt. Taylor bailed out from the waist of the aircraft, the unidentified crew chief having already bailed out. Lt. Small and the three-crew members who parachuted from the burning aircraft survived. MSgt. William L. Armstrong, the line chief, died because his parachute burned. When the burning Liberator crashed, Lt. Telep and SSgt. Earl Stopher, his radio operator, were still in their seats and died in the crash.
(Thank you Contributor)