What happened
During an early morning anti-submarine warfare training mission, a P2V Neptune operated by the US Navy from Quonset Point NAS went down at sea. The aircraft was part of a coordinated exercise involving the submarine USS Piper (SS-409) and the navy tug USS Hopi (AFT-71) near Block Island.
Following a rendezvous over the Jamestown Bridge in Narragansett Bay shortly after 0400LT, the aircraft proceeded toward the operational area located approximately 70 miles off the coast of Block Island. During this flight phase, the plane performed a right bank and subsequently impacted the ocean surface. The accident resulted in eight fatalities, as all crew members on board were killed.
Findings
The specific circumstances leading to the aircraft's descent into the sea remain unidentified, as investigators were unable to establish why the plane banked and crashed.