October Grumman XTB3F-2S Guardian BuNo 90505, prototype of the ASW variant, underwent propeller-vibration tests by Grumman in New York. It had a prop failure and crashed on Long Island, killing the Hamilton Standard representative in the rear fuselage. Pilot Mike Ritchie made a high-speed, 200-foot parachute escape, but landed on top of the wreckage and was hospitalized for many months. 9 OctoberDouglas C-47A-90-DL Skytrain 43-16062 (c/n 20528) of the 6th Rescue Squadron, Air Rescue Service, MATS, based at Goose Bay, Labrador, failed to reach sufficient air speed on takeoff from the Isachsen airstrip at the abandoned Isachsen weather station, Ellef Ringnes Island, Northwest Territory at 18:00 UTC, lifting off twice before its landing skis contacted rising terrain and collapsed. The causes were icing and overloading. Four crew and six passengers had minor injuries. The airframe was abandoned in place, where it remains. 31 OctoberWestland Wyvern test program had a setback when second prototype Wyvern TF Mk 2 (N.12/45) VP113, powered by an Armstrong Siddeley Python turboprop, crashed in an attempted dead-stick landing after the propellers seized in flight. The test pilot was killed. 1 November Lockheed P-38L Lightning NX26297 flown by a Bolivian Air Force pilot collided in midair with Eastern Airlines Flight 537 (Douglas DC-4 airliner N88727) on its final approach to National Airport. All 55 people aboard the Douglas DC-4 died; Bridaux, considered one of Bolivia's most experienced pilots, survived with injuries. Among the dead were Congressman George J. Bates and former Congressman Michael J. Kennedy. The DC-4 wreckage came down on the Virginia shore of the Potomac River north of Mount Vernon. At the time, it was the worst plane crash in the history of civil aviation. Bridaux was cleared of causing the accident, now believed to have been an air traffic control error. 9 November A US Navy Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer on a training flight crash-landed south of Mikkalo, Oregon, after all four engines "froze up" in flight. One person was killed. 16 November A USAF B-29 on a flight from March Air Force Base in California to England via Bermuda went down at sea when it ran out of fuel. Of the 20 crew, two were missing; 18 were rescued on 19 November, 385 miles northeast of Bermuda. 22 NovemberFirst prototype Gloster E.1/44 TX145, on a test flight from the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) in Farnborough, had an engine flame-out, crash-landed, and was repaired. 29