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Article: JOHN BOGERT: Lost WWII pilot will remain missing --- for now
- Article from:
- Daily Breeze
- Article date:
- October 12, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2009 Daily Breeze. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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The mystery begins on the foggy late afternoon of Oct. 26, 1944,
with Gertrude "Tommy" Tompkins banking hard left over Santa Monica
Bay in a gleaming new P-51D Mustang.
Somewhere between wheels-up at Mines Field (now LAX) and a spot
well off the Manhattan Beach Pier, the 437-mph fighter - the day's
hottest ticket - sputtered and came down in what the only witness to
the crash called "a controlled way" before striking the mist-
shrouded water.
It has been suggested that Tompkins, 32 and only weeks married,
wasn't prepared for the effect an 85-gallon, behind-the-seat fuel
tank would have on a turn that was supposed to bring her in line
with Green Airway 5, the flight path two other ...