THE FLAGLER TRIBUNE
Bunnell, Florida
Thursday, September 21, 1944

 

Two navy planes from the Daytona Beach Naval Air Station collided over Bunnell Wednesday afternoon with the occupant of each plane losing his life when both planes crashed, one only a short distance from the business section and near the Texaco Oil Company's bulk station, while the other hit about a mile and a half east of town.

The planes collided at about 2000 feet, one with a wing severed spiraled almost straight down while the other burst into flames and flew east more than a mile before crashing.

The pilot of the plane that fell in Bunnell was 22.year-old Lt. Robert L. Settle of Norfolk, Va., who was still in the plane when the flames that enveloped it upon crashing were put out.

The other flyer was 25-year-old Lt. Robert Kingston of Los Angeles, Calif., who either fell or jumped from the plane before it crashed, his unused parachute falling, fully open, several miles away. Both planes were burned.

A crew and crash truck from the Bunnell Naval Air Field extinguished the flames on the planes and removed the bodies of the flyers.

Names and addresses of the dead pilots were furnished by Lt. Hood, public relations officer of the Daytona Beach Naval Air Station.