On February 23, 1930 the Western Air Express Fokker F-10A NC-279E was on a flight from Kingman, Arizona to Los Angeles, California. At the time no passengers were onboard, only the three man flight crew. When NC-279E failed to arrived at it’s destination, an air and ground search was started for the missing airliner. After an extensive twelve day search, the crushed wreckage was spotted from the air in a box canyon by pilot Dudley Steele and pilot/observer Juanita Burns who were taking part in the search. The exact cause of the accident is unknown, but it appears that NC-279E suffered from structural failure after flying into a severe snowstorm over the San Bernardino Mountains. One of it’s wings was found intact eight hundred feet away and on the other side of a ridge from where it had crashed into the canyon. Killed in the accident were pilot James E. Doles, co-pilot Arthur W. Bieber and steward John W. Slaton.

The Western Air Express Fokker F-10A NC-279E while it was under construction at the factory.

This photo was provided by G. Pat Macha. It shows pilot Dudley Steele and pilot/observer Juanita Burns at the wreckage the day after it was located. Here’s the text that was on the back of the photo.

REFERENCE DEPT. MAR 10 1930 N.E.A.

WRECKED AIR LINER FOUND AFTER TWO-WEEKS SEARCH

Object of a frantic two-weeks search by scores of planes and hundreds of mountaineers, the missing tri-motored air liner which dropped from sight in a storm between Kingman, Ariz., and Los Angeles has been found wrecked in an inaccessible spot in the Sierras with its complement of three men, including the noted pilot Jim Doles, dead. Mrs. Juanita Eloise Burns, 25-year-old Texas woman flyer, located the wrecked plane by reasoning out the actions Pilot Doles would probably have taken and searching for the where she thought it would be, after scores of men flyers had totally failed to locate the ship.

Memo: Had considerable expense on this, since we all had to chip in and finance the expedition into the mountains.

Another photo provided by G. Pat Macha.

Here’s the text that was on the back of this one.

REFERENCE DEPT. MAR 18 1930 N.E.A.

Wreckage of the 14-passenger Western Air Express Fokker monoplane missing on a run from Kingman, Arizona, to Los Angeles, more than two weeks. James E. Dole, pilot; Arthur Beiber, co-pilot, and John Slaton, steward, were crushed to death in the mass, which struck a mountain near Lake Arrowhead, Cal.

Heading east on the 210 Freeway just after sunrise. This F-10A has been on my to do list for a long time, looking forward to photographing the site.

At the start of the hike.

Patric will be returning some items that were given to his father by the deer hunter who located the site about thirty years ago and had recovered the parts. The largest of the items is this engine cylinder which is as heavy as it looks.

Patric leading the way to the site followed by Grant and his father Geoff. During the hike I was thinking about how difficult it must have been for the first responders back in 1930 to reach the site. They didn’t have the access roads into the area like we were able to use.

Arriving at the crash site. The hike went better than I was expecting. Thought we were going to have to hike though a lot of brush, but Patric's route kept that to a minimum.

These are the items that were returned to the site.

The first piece of wreckage we came upon as we reached the site was this exhaust manifold.

Another view of the exhaust manifold.

The crankshaft from one of the three Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp engines that powered the F-10A. The master rod and half of the prop hub are still attached.

The other half of the prop hub was laying nearby.

An exhaust pipe.

Another exhaust pipe.

Close up of the exhaust tip. The exhaust pipes were made from a fairly thick walled tubing. After ninety years out in the weather, they still looked in good shape.

Another exhaust manifold. This one is partially buried. Made me wonder what parts might be completely buried at the site.

One of the engine cylinders, found about ten of these scattered around the site.

Patric with the remains of the fuselage.

Closer view of the fuselage frame. The F-10A used a lot of wood and fabric in it’s construction which is gone due to the many wildfires that passed though the area over the years.

Another view of the fuselage frame. This is looking from the front to the tail which is overgrown by a bush.

The frame is sitting upside down. The horizontal stabilizer can be seem within the bush.

One of the main landing gears.

The aluminum fairing on the landing gear.

Wire spoke wheel.

Another view of the wheel.

Close up of the wheel hub. I’ve read that these planes were equipped with brakes, but can’t see any sign of them on the hub. I not familiar with F-10s so this is all new to me.

Close up of the spokes.

View from the other side.

The front section of the frame was badly damaged.

Close up of some the smashed tubing.

Some of the wire bracing on the frame.

Looks like this section of the frame had wood bolted to it.

There were several of these bands on the frame marked with F1012-12.

The rear section had an area where the tail wheel was cut off.

Close up of the cut tubes.

Geoff and myself with the frame.

Photo By Patric.

There were a lot of parts scattered around the fuselage frame.

This looks like some type of vent, it’s about two feet long.

Another engine cylinder. Beside it is and part that’s partially covered.

Pulled it out, looks like it might be part of a filter. It’s about a foot long.

This looks like an impeller from an engine supercharger.

Another view of the impeller.

This is the only piece of wood we found at the site. Somehow it survived the wildfires in the area.

This maybe from one of the engine nacelles, it’s about 30 inches across.

Next to the right horizontal stabilizer were the remains of the center engine, nose section of the fuselage frame and the other main landing gear.

Closer view of the right stab showing it’s construction.

The only thing remaining of the engine was the crankshaft, master rod and the other connecting rods. It seems that at some point all the aluminum was salvaged. There wasn’t any sign of the heads, pistons or engine housings at the site.