B. Harding, the pilot, Fairfield-Suisun base. Capt. William H. Tillery, Fairfield, Calif. Capt. Wiley A. Garber, Oakland, Calif. Capt. Frederick J. Ziegler, Sacramento, Calif. Sgt. Stephen J. Pressey, Oakland, Calif. Last radio contact with the plane was at 1:07 p.m. At that time the pilot messaged he was 25 [miles] north of Portland making a procedure turn at 4000 feet for an instrument letdown. The missing craft was on a routine training flight from its home field at Fairfield-Suisun, (Calif.) to Portland. An intensive ground search of the area was launched by Washington and Oregon state police. Low clouds, heavy rains and limited visibility prevented rescue planes from taking off here or at Portland." 31 March One of two Curtiss SB2C-5 Helldivers (BuNo 83414), en route from Naval Air Station Tillamook in Oregon, to San Diego, California, crashed in the woods near Rockaway Beach, Oregon, killing pilot Robert W. Smedley. Loggers who witnessed the troubled flight and the crash penetrated the rugged forest area on a ridge of the Pacific coast mountains. K. B. Hamilton reported that the pilot had apparently tried to parachute, since the shroud was tangled in the wreckage. The engine was buried. The logger said that the plane must have come down in a dive, since the treetops were not sheared off. The wreckage was rediscovered by loggers on 10 March 2010. "HEMPSTEAD, N. Y., March 31 (AP) - Two air force fliers were killed today when a fighter plane from Mitchel field crashed and burned in a wooded area near the field. First Lt. Alan Belmarsh, 26, of Brockton, Mass., was killed instantly. First Lt. Ray E. Fritsche, 25, of route 4, San Augustine, Texas, died at the Mitchel field base hospital." April–June 1948 2 April A USAF Reserve Beechcraft AT-11 with three men aboard disappeared during a 35-mile flight from McChord Air Force Base to Naval Air Station Sand Point, near Seattle. Wreckage was sighted on 4 April near the summit of 5,344-foot Mount Pilchuck in the Mount Baker National Forest, about 18 miles northeast of Everett, Washington. Col. John B. Randolph, air reserve commander at McChord, reported from a search plane that its identity was confirmed by the tail number of the downed craft. McChord authorities identified the victims as pilot Capt. James E. McLaughlin of Tacoma, Washington, on active army duty as commanding officer of the Seattle air reserve; copilot 2d Lt.