before being turned over to new crews to be shuttled to the continental U.S. B-29-45-BA (44-83960), of the 1521st Army Air Force Base Unit at Hickam Field, was piloted by Fred S. Andes. USAAF Douglas C-47B-50-DK Skytrain (45-1085, c/n 34355/17088) of the 3d MATW at Topeka Army Air Field in Kansas, piloted by Richard K. Young, en route from Stockton Army Air Field to Denver, crashed in the Sierra Nevada north of Lake Tahoe. All three crew members and 23 passengers were killed; all were Army and Navy personnel. The C-47 crashed in mid-morning, and some witnesses said that it exploded in the air. The fuselage landed near Hobart Mills, California, seven miles north of Truckee. Reno Army Air Base commanding officer Capt. Harold Simer, who reached the scene soon after game warden Bill La Mar arrived at about 15:30, said that the plane's starboard wing had not been found and might have dropped away first. He said that the plane had spiralled down crazily, striking a tree (which sheared off the port wing); the fuselage hit the mountain slope and nosed over, breaking open. There were no signs of life when La Mar arrived, either in the fuselage or outside the wreckage. All were in Army of Navy uniform and were, for the most part, intact. There was no fire. Snow in the hollow was over an average person's head in depth. Hobart Mills, a ghost town about a mile away with only a caretaker and his wife, was the nearest point to which a vehicle could approach the crash site. "Rescuers at once sent for caterpillar tractors and snow plows, and Capt. Simer said that night lights were also on the way so that the task of making a road among the big pines could go on in the dark. Clair Heater, caretaker at Hobart Mills, and three California highway maintenance workers from Sierraville, D. W. Roberts, Floyd V. Reed, and Tom Dewyre, all said they saw the plane apparently explode in the air and break into pieces." 28 March Consolidated Liberator C Mk VIII KN760 of No. 159 Squadron RAF crashed on the airfield at Pegu, Burma (Myanmar) shortly after takeoff due to engine failure. The pilot attempted an emergency landing; the aircraft stalled and plunged to the ground, exploding on impact. Of the 21 personnel on board, 17 were killed; the other four were seriously injured.