Inver Grove Heights/Aviation buff can cite names of crew who died in B-52 crash 50 years ago

Near U.S. 52 and Minnesota 55 in Inver Grove Heights, a memorial marks the spot where an Air Force B-52 bomber slammed into a cornfield 50 years ago today, killing seven of eight crewmen aboard.

About 15 miles west, Bloomington resident Dave Mattsson pays tribute to the crash in the basement of his Cape Cod-style home. The 45-year-old aviation history buff has spent parts of a decade researching the Cold War crash and collecting everything from black and white photos to pieces of the plane.

"Anything old you can touch tells a story," said Mattsson, a former skydiving instructor and aircraft mechanic. "It's the closest thing you can get to a time machine."

The local chapter of the national Experimental Aircraft Association will host a ceremony at 6:30 tonight at the memorial to mark the anniversary of the crash.

August Kahl and son Loren were loading tomatoes onto a truck when they heard the plane barrel in from the southwest.

"It got louder and louder, and all of sudden, the yard light went out and it got dark," recalled Loren Kahl, 65, who lives in Vermillion. "Then it sounded like a bomb hit."

Father and son ran toward their house, but a fireball knocked them to the ground. Flames engulfed them.

"I could feel the skin on my face draw up, and that's when I knew I was burned," Loren Kahl said. He spent more than two weeks in the hospital; his dad spent six. The family's house and barn were destroyed.

The plane started its training mission at an Air Force base in Limestone, Maine. After practicing bomb runs in several states, it flew to the Twin Cities to simulate a nuclear strike. When the plane's flight controls malfunctioned, the tail broke off, and the plane began falling

Very interesting article expecially for those of us in the Twin Cities! And to think that 50 years ago...today!

I know where this area is. Back then it was nothing but farmfields. Inver Grove Heights is a southeastern suburb of St Paul.

How awful this must have been for the crew of this plane and for the sole survivor. Click on the link and view some interesting photos!

Comments or opinions - anyone?

It would surprise a lot people to know how many stories there are like this, with the areas spread all across the country. You would think something as dramatic as a B-52 crashing and burning would never be forgotten, but we have a really short memory span.

Two B-47’s crashed just east of Tampa in 1954 or so. One reported trouble with the landing gear and a second plan flew up under the first to inspect the gear. They collided and fell to the ground in flames. As I recall there was a total of seven fatalities between the two crews. Everyone on board both planes died, but one of the aircraft had an extra person for the flight.

There are areas just east of Tampa International Airport where bombers crashed short of the east-west runway during WWII when the airport was Drew Field. I've seen newspaper accounts of a couple of the crashes.

It's interesting how time goes by and the area loses any similarity to what it was when the incident occurred. There's a very busy intersection just north of TIA where a light twin crashed on New Year's Eve 1969 killing the two on board. At the time the area was an old farm and the crash site was very rural. In the 40 years since the area has grown up and roads built right through the spot where the wreckage of the plane ended up.

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