range, 10 miles east of the Twentynine Palms Naval Auxiliary Air station, according to coroner R. E. Williams. The coroner was notified that the pilot was flying a Corsair in a run at a target and the plane failed to come out of the dive. It hit the ground and exploded. Inentity [sic] of the flyer was withheld pending notification of next of kin." 5 July The first prototype Mikoyan-Gurevich I-250, completed on 26 February 1945, had a failure of its port tailplane at low altitude; test pilot Alexandr Deyev was killed when his parachute failed to open in time. Post-crash analysis revealed that he had exceeded the airframe's g-limit while maneuvering. 7 July On the first flight of the prototype Mitsubishi J8M1 Shusui, a Japanese derivative of the Me 163B, the aircraft reached in a steep climb; the rocket motor then cut out, and the plane crashed at Yokosuka Naval Aeronautical Engineering Arsenal. The cause was believed to be hydrogen peroxide shifting to the rear of the partially-empty tank or an air leak in the fuel line. The pilot, Lt. Cdr. Toyohiko Inuzuka, died in hospital the following day. A redesign of the fuel system followed, but no additional flights were made before the Japanese surrender in August. 12 July United States Army Air Forces Douglas A-26C-35-DT Invader 44-35553 on a training flight collided in mid-air with Eastern Air Lines Flight 45 from Washington, D.C. to Columbia, South Carolina, a Douglas DC-3-201C NC25647 at roughly , west-northwest of Florence, South Carolina at 2:36 pm. The A-26's vertical fin struck the airliner's port wing, displacing its engine (which cut into fuselage). The A-26's tail sheared off; two crew members parachuted, and one was killed. The DC-3 pilot belly landed in cornfield, and one passenger of the 24 aboard was killed. 13 July Consolidated B-24H-20-FO Liberator 42-94956 (c/n 1721) of the 2135th Base Unit at Tyndall Field, Florida, piloted by Paul R. Snyder, crashed due to bad weather northwest of Southport, Florida. The crew were killed. They included gunner Cpl. Eddie L. Keefe, 19, of Orangeburg, South Carolina, "the only son of O. L. Keefe and Alice Youmans Keefe, of this city." He was survived by his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. W. F. Youmans, of Luray, South Carolina. Keefe "graduated from Orangeburg high school in 1943 and attended one term at Clemson College. He entered service 22 May 1944. He was