Freeman on 13 September) when, as he prepared to land (at about 300 feet), the aircraft pitched up, rolled over and bellied into the ground nose-up. The aircraft was destroyed, and the pilot killed. Although an investigation cited "pilot error" (it was thought that he might have attempted a wing-over at too low an altitude for recovery), it might have been another example of the faulty electrical horizontal-trim-switch problem which caused the loss of the Fw 190 at Hollidaysburg Airport in Pennsylvania on 12 September. 29 September Silverplate Boeing B-29B-35-MO Superfortress 44-27303 ("Jabit III") of the 509th Composite Group, Wendover Army Air Field, Utah, on a cross-country training mission, struck several objects on landing at Chicago Municipal Airport and never flew again. Assigned to the 4200th Base Unit at the airport pending a disposition decision, it was salvaged there in April 1946. October–December 1945 2 October A U.S. Navy Martin PBM-5E Mariner flying boat (BuNo 59336) of VPB-205 carrying Rear Admiral William Sample, commander of Carrier Division 22, Suwannee Captain Charles C. McDonald and seven others, disappeared near Wakayama, Japan on a familiarization flight. They were declared dead on 4 October; the wreckage and their bodies were found on 19 November 1948. 3 October Captured Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 V14, the first helicopter to fly across the English Channel on 6 September 1945 when it was moved from Cherbourg to RAF Beaulieu, crashed on its third test flight at RAF Beaulieu when a driveshaft failed. The accident was thought to be due to a failure to correctly tension the steel cables which secured the engine, despite warnings from Luftwaffe helicopter pilot Helmut Gerstenhauer. 12 October USAAF Curtiss C-46F-1-CU Commando 44-78591 was on approach to Nanyuan Airport in China en route from Hankou when it struck a radio antenna and crashed near Beijing, killing all 59 passengers and crew. The crash was the worst involving a C-46. 1 November The first prototype McDonnell XFD-1 Phantom (BuNo 48235) crashed as a result of aileron failure. Woodward Burke, McDonnell's chief test pilot, was killed. 3 November Consolidated LB-30/Consolidated C-87 Liberator Express AL-640, assigned to the 1504th AAF Base Unit at Fairfield-Suisun Army Air Base and piloted by Norman C. Fisher, ran out of fuel 500 miles northeast of Honolulu en route to Fairfield-Suisun Army Air Base in California and ditched in the Pacific at 7:40 am (over four hours after it departed Hawaii) at