of Pasadena, member of the bomber crew, escaped death by bailing out. Later the National Guard identified two of the men killed as First Lt. William E. Van Delinder of Long Beach and Second Lt. Robert Aiken of Rosemead. Efforts were being made to reach vacationing parents of the third victim, an enlisted man." July–December 1948 3 July "PEARL HARBOR, July 3 (AP) - A Marine fighter pilot who vanished during fleet exercises at 4:30 a.m. was being sought by 57 planes in the area southwest of Pearl Harbor today." 4 July The 1948 Northwood mid-air collision occurred at 15:03 when Douglas DC-6 SE-BDA (Agnar Viking) of Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) and Avro York C.1 MW248 of 99 Squadron of the Royal Air Force (RAF) collided over Northwood in London. All thirty-nine people aboard both aircraft were killed. It was SAS's first fatal aviation accident, and was the deadliest civilian aviation accident in the UK at the time; it is still the deadliest mid-air collision in British history. 8 July USAF Douglas C-47A-30-DK Skytrain 43-48256 crashed near Wiesbaden, Germany, killing three crew. It was the first accident of the Berlin Airlift. First Lt. George B. Smith, First Lt. Leland V. Williams, and Karl v. Hagen of the Department of the Army were killed. (One source incorrectly lists this crash as involving a C-54 Skymaster.) 21 July United States Air Force Boeing B-29-100-BW Superfortress 45-21847, modified into a Boeing F-13 Superfortress reconnaissance platform, crashed into Lake Mead, Nevada, during a classified cosmic-ray research mission out of Armitage Field, Naval Air Facility, NOTS, Inyokern, California. Five crew escaped unharmed before the bomber sank. 25 July Douglas C-47B-15-DK Skytrain 43-49534 (c/n 15350/26795), participating in the Berlin Airlift, departed from Wiesbaden Air Base in Germany, struck an apartment building on its approach to Berlin and crashed in the street, killing both crew: 1st Lt. Charles H. King and 1st Lt. Robert W. Stuber. 20 August Boeing B-29-15-BA Superfortress 42-63442 crashed near Rapid City, South Dakota shortly after takeoff from Rapid City AFB, killing all 17 on board. 23 August On the first flight test of the McDonnell XF-85 Goblin parasite fighter 45–524, (the second of two prototypes), McDonnell test pilot Edwin F. Schoch successfully detached from the trapeze on Boeing EB-29B Superfortress 44-84111 (named "Monstro"); when he tried to hook up after free flight, the small fighter (buffeted by turbulence from the bomber) swung