TALLAHASSEE - 1-9-43. Five fliers were killed and one survived when a bomber taking off from Dale Mabry Field crashed in a cypress swamp near here Tuesday night. Second Lt. Ivor P. Evans, 19, suffered a broken finger and bruises. He perched on the wheel of the wrecked plane for seven hours before rescuers arrived at dawn. When asked what he wanted most, he said; Water, a blanket and daylight -- plenty of daylight. Follow up 2006: Retired Air Force Colonel Ivor Evans told me there were no rescuers at dawn to help him from the crashed B-25. Although he was a navigator, he was along for the ride on this cross-country from Dale Mabry AAB in Tallahassee to Maxwell AAB in Alabama. He and one of five crewmen were adjusting their parachute straps when the plane crashed in dense swamp 1-mile NW of Dale Mabry. He said water was hip deep and he had no idea where he was. There were no sounds from within the bomber. He sat on the wheel until daylight and walked through the swamp until reaching a service road near the air base. The crew was dead, including the man he had been standing with. He retired after 30-years in the Air Force and now lives in Abilene, TX.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 13:42:58 +0000