Summary: In the early afternoon of December 4, 1942, a B-24 Liberator departed Davis-Monthan Field in Tucson for a navigational flight. As they took a course northward toward Florence, Arizona, they noticed thunderheads in the distance. About five miles southwest of Kelvin, the skies were filled with overcast and low-hanging rain clouds that obscured the 3,000 foot mountain peaks.  By 2 pm, the heavy rain had subsided and the base of the dark clouds had risen to 6,000 feet. Soon after, the loud rumble of an USAAF bomber's radial engines filled the sky. A few people in the area looked up and noticed a piece of aircraft falling from the cloudbank. Immediately afterwards, the large olive-drab painted bomber dropped from the clouds and began a series of wide, slow circles. One witness noticed that the bomber was missing the right-hand tail assembly as it flew near her house. As she watched it fly away, it began climbing and diving, before finally climbing one last time, stalling, and crashing to the ground.

Investigators concluded that while the bomber was flying in the overcast at an altitude above 9,000 feet, it encountered strong turbulence. The turbulence was violent enough to have caused enough severe upward pressure on the right-hand tail assembly that caused it to fracture and break free of the aircraft. The turbulence further weakened the tension and stability of the left-hand tail assembly, which caused the bomber to fall into a spin as it descended from the clouds.  However, there was just enough stability in the left tail assembly to allow Lt. Adams to have only partial control of the bomber. As he recovered from the spin, only 1,000 feet above the desert terrain, he had sufficient control to fly in a southeast heading. However, the aircraft became unmanageable and began climbing and stalling, before crashing. Searchers combed the steep cactus-covered hills and deep canyons and finally located several broken sections of the right-hand tail assembly and rudder scattered over a mile from where the bomber had crashed.

The seven-man crew was Lt. Robert Adams, pilot; Lt. Arthur Eidson, copilot; Sgt. James Akins, engineer; S/Sgt. Francis Santmyer, radio operator; Sgt. Armand Peltier, gunner; Pvt.Edward Zeintarski, radio/ gunner; Pvt. Milton Keinholz, gunner.