On 6/23/46 Vultee BT-15 #42-1833 crashed in the Pinto Mountains 8.5 miles southeast of Twentynine Palms killing Lockheed Aircraft employee Arthur T. Coddington who had been en route from Wickenburg AZ at time of the accident. Mr Coddington just purchased the surplus Vultee BT- 15 and was on a flight to his home town of Burbank.

Sunrise on the I-10. Heading out to an aera southeast of Twentynine Palms.

Craig Fuller emailed me some info he got from Pat Macha that explains where the BT-15 wreckage is located. There was also a few photos, but they were photocopies of old photos and didn't show much detail. I also had a screen shot taken from Pat's DVD "Wreck Finding". Craig will meet me tomorrow on the west side of the mountains where there is a road that we can hike up most of the way.

The info from Pat said the wreckage could be spotted by hiking out to a saddle in some hills. This photo was taken from those hills looking to the west. The photos showed the wreckage in the circled area, but after an hour looking for it using 10X50 binoculars, had the feeling the wreckage wasn't going to be there.

Our camp the next morning on the west side of the mountains. Craig and Brent arrived Friday night.

A short way up the road was this locked gate. If it was opened, we could have driven most of the way.

Looking back to my truck parked near the locked gate. Craig came up with the idea of using the road on the west side instead of climbing up the east side, good idea.

A view to the east from the top of the mountain. The arrow is pointing to the hill I hiked up the day before to try and spot the wreckage.

Craig starting down the slope so we can get a better view of the canyons.

Craig was able to spot some of the features in the screen shot from this vantage point.