Incident
On the evening of December 23, a Douglas DC-4 made an emergency ditching in the Pacific Ocean following an uncontrollable fire in the No. 3 engine. The incident occurred at the conclusion of a training flight. The ditching took place under dark night conditions with minimal 10-foot swells having a period of approximately 10 seconds. The aircraft was reported to have remained afloat for about 10 minutes after ditching.
Air Defense Zone Penetrations
Although the flight penetrated the Pacific Coastal Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) on at least two occasions, no radar evidence corroborated the penetrations. Additionally, there was no receipt of the pilot's mayday on 121.5 MHz.
Search and Weather
No wreckage has been observed along the Washington shoreline since the event. Weather conditions at 1750 hours PST within 20 miles of the ditching location were reported as a measured 900-foot overcast ceiling with 1.5 miles visibility in light rain and fog. Surface winds prevailed from the southeast.
Pilots' Raft Drift
Despite the southeast surface winds, the two pilots reportedly drifted northeast via raft, covering a distance of at least 14 nautical miles in 16 hours.
Investigation
The board's findings surrounding this event remain undetermined.