REPUBLIC RC-3 SEABEE # 328

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AIRCRAFT DATA

Shell Simmons In Plane Crash In Gastineau Channel

     Juneau, (AP), A Seabee plane landing with its wheels down upended in Gastineau Channel yesterday, dunking the pilot and three passengers.
     Rescuers pulled one of the passengers, identified only as Father Forni, through a side door and rushed him to a hospital here. His condition was believed serious.
     The pilot, Sheldon Simmons of Juneau, suffered cuts when thrown through the windshield.
     Other passengers were George Taplev of Juneau, an Alaska Road Commission engineer. and W. K. Yost, of Pan American Airways at Fairbanks.
     The quartet was pulled from the water by Alaska Coastal mechanics who rushed to the scene in an outboard motorboat and a yacht.
     An ambulance waiting at the dock for a heart patient arriving on another plane took Forni to the hospital first.
     The pilot of the second plane said he tried without success to signal the Seabee that the wheels were down.
     The plane was chartered by the Road Commission for Taplev's trip here from Skagway. Other passengers were added because no space was available on the regular Skagway flight.

[Daily Sitka Sentinel; Wednesday, July 25, 1951]

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