[Milsurplus] Glen Miller - History Channel

[bsugarberg at core.com]

So what exactly happened? Spoiler alert: Here comes a detailed
description of a tragic confluence of circumstances.

Miller had been anxious to leave Britain for France, in order to 
present a major concert for the troops who had liberated Paris. Lt. Col. 
Norman Baessell, an important figure in managing America's war effort, 
also needed to get to France fast and offered Miller a ride.

Unfortunately, weather conditions were deteriorating, with fog 
thickening and cloud ceiling dropping rapidly from 3,000 to 2,000 to 
1,500 feet. Paris officials denied Baessell's pilot, John Morgan, 
permission to undertake the flight, because the city was engulfed in  fog.
But Baessell ordered Morgan to go ahead anyway, a disastrous  decision,
because the pilot was not certified for flying without visuals  and by
instruments alone.

What's more, defective carburetors on U.S. military aircraft of the 
period – including the single-engine plane Miller, Baessell and
Morgan  were boarding – were known to freeze up. These
malfunctioning  carburetors prevented fuel from getting to the engine and
caused many  U.S. military planes to crash.

Given the terrible weather, faulty machinery and the pilot's limited 
skills, the chances that the three men would reach their destination  were
not good.

"The airplane got out over the water, the (cloud) ceiling was 
dropping, the temperature was at freezing, the engine ices up, and all  of
a sudden, as they're flying along, more than halfway across the  Channel,
there's a loud noise, like a bang, like a backfire," says  researcher
Dennis Spragg in the program, citing newly discovered  documents he's
incorporating into a forthcoming book.

"The engine stops, the airplane turns nose down, and in eight
seconds  it's in the water. … That's exactly what the United States
Army Air  Force concluded three weeks after the accident."

But why didn't the army explain that scenario to Miller's fans around
the world?

For starters, the program shows, Miller boarded an unauthorized 
flight, so military operations didn't know for days that he was even on 
the fallen plane. In addition, Miller's failure to appear for the Paris 
concert had been overshadowed by news of the colossal Battle of the 
Bulge. Furthermore, U.S. military policy at the time precluded releasing 
such information.