Article taken from Traverse City Record Eagle, Travers City, MI, May 20, 1947
Windsor, ONT., May 20---(UP)--
Army officers from Selfridge Field, MI and Ontario provincial police launched a joint investigation today into the crash of a U.S. army transport plane which scraped the roof of a house in suburban Windsor and then plunged into a cornfield, killing the five persons aboard.
Victims of the crash, identified by the army air force at Wright Field. O., were 1st Lt. William O. Reilly, 24, Springfield, O., 1st Lt. Raymond L. Berke, 26, San Diego, Cal., 1st Lt. Mildon D. Cunningham. 24, Centralia, Ill., M/Sgt. Paerl H. Zempter, 29, Sciotoville, O.; Sgt. John H Kennedy, 40, Lewisburg, Tenn.
The plane, a C-45 twin-engined Beechcraft, was en route from Wright Field to Selfridge, when it crashed during a blinding rain at 9:30 last night. The plane plunged to the earth with such force that wreckage and parts of bodies were scattered over a wide area. The crash occurred only a few yards from St. Mary's academy, a Catholic girls school. "It was terrible," he said. I've never seen anything so bad. Parts of bodies were scattered all over the field, and the rain was pouring down. Once engine was buried five feet into the ground and one wing had been torn off. It was laying about 50 feet from the rest of the plane.
Maj. James Norris, mortuary officer at Selfridge said it was one of the worst crashes he had ever seen.