Survivor remembers 1950 crash

  • Published
  • By Travis Heritage Center
  • Travis Heritage Center
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  William Braz was an eyewitness to Travis Air Force Base history.

In fact, he is the last known surviving member from the B-29 Superfortress crew that crashed Aug. 5, 1950, an incident which gave the base its name.

Braz was born in 1920 and is now 92 years old, but his mind is still sharp, with a vivid memory of the events that occurred so long ago. He was able to give a full account of what happened during the day that changed the history of Travis.

Back in August 1950, 1st Lt. Braz was a bombardier assigned to the 99th Bomb Squadron, 9th Bombardment Wing at Fairfield-Suisun Air Force Base.

He was seated right next to Brig. Gen. Robert Travis on the B-29's flight deck at the time of the accident.

The B-29 crashed just five minutes after a nighttime takeoff at Fairfield-Suisun AFB as part of a 15-ship deployment to the Pacific just after the beginning of the Korean conflict.

The crash killed 12 crewmembers and passengers aboard the B-29, including Travis. Additionally, seven people on the ground, five base firefighters and two volunteers attempting to rescue the crew, also died.

In addition, 49 injured people were admitted to the hospital and 124 others received minor injuries. Miraculously, eight of the B-29's crew and passengers survived the crash.
As he remembered the crash, Braz spoke with a shaky voice. He had to pause at times, but was still cognizant. He gave a vivid account of the accident. As he talked, he remembered lost friends and wondered if things could have gone differently.

"It was a normal mission as far as I was concerned, until takeoff," Braz said. "Then it seemed when we were halfway down the runway, No. 2 (engine propeller) ran away and there seemed to be difficulty in getting No. 2 back."

Braz heard Pilot Capt. Eugene Steffes call to move turbo boost selector to a more powerful setting and the No. 2 engine's propeller blades were positioned so air flowed straight through them rather than making them spin.

He heard the co-pilot, yell that the landing gear wasn't coming up. Steffes started making a turn back toward the base.

"We lost airspeed and Steffes called to the co-pilot to alert the crew for crash landing," Braz said. "His interphone wasn't working and he was shouting across the cockpit. 'Where's the field?' I tried to direct him back and to the right of us."

Braz said he was moving around, half out of his seat when he heard someone yell that something was happening to the No. 3 engine.

"It looked like things were getting difficult," he said. "I ran toward the back to get into a crash landing position and started to pull down the crash crossbar. Just then, General Travis told me, 'Get back, get ready, there is no time for that.' "

Travis pulled Braz down just before the plane crashed. Braz said it seemed as though the aircraft turned and turned and rolled five or six times.

In order to escape the aircraft, the pilots knocked out a window. Steffes got out, but, on the way, badly injured his hand. The co-pilot was halfway out when he got stuck, needing a push from Braz, who then followed him out.

"I stood up and saw people looking around," Braz said. "Someone shouted, 'That's the general.' They went over and dragged him away from the plane."

Someone yelled to get away from the plane. Braz walked toward a nearby road. Quickly, he was in a car transporting him to the base hospital where he collapsed in the receiving room.

According to the Air Force accident report, the cause of the crash was propeller malfunctions at liftoff combined with the failure of the landing gear to retract. Approximately 20 minutes after the crash, the highly explosive filler in the aircraft's bomb casing ignited, resulting in a blast that severely damaged the base trailer park near the main gate.

Braz was seriously injured in the accident, but recovered and continued to serve a long career in the Air Force that began in World War II flying in B-24 Liberators and ended flying in B-52 Stratofortresses.

The United States Congress created the Veterans History Project in 2000 as part of the American Folk Life Center at the Library of Congress. The mission of the project is to collect, preserve and make accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war.

It has taken Braz years to talk about what happened and what he saw. His daughter said she had never heard her father talk about the accident before. Future generations will now have these memories and be able to learn from his first-hand account.

Dave Trojan, Travis Heritage Center researcher, has investigated the accident as part of an effort to update the Travis exhibit at the Heritage Center. He used genealogy websites to track down Braz.

"There are some pictures and official reports that help tell the story of what happened, but hearing it first-hand by an eyewitness who was there was dramatic," Trojan said.

Before leaving, Travis members presented Braz with a 60th Air Mobility Wing commander's coin on behalf of Col. Dwight Sones, the wing's former commander, to show him he is still part of Travis and still remembered.