The Following was copied from the Lynchburg VA newspaper "The News & Advance" February 6 (Thursday), 1943 issue:

Five men, who were killed in the crash of a twin-motored Army bomber into the side of Sharp Top, one of the Twin Peaks of Otter about 9:45 o'clock Tuesday night, were identified last night by air base officials at Columbia, S. C.

The Names of the casualties, withheld until relatives were notified, together with their next of kin are:

Second Lieutenant Paul M. Pitts, 21, the pilot; father, L.D. Pitts, Poteau, Okla.

Second Lieutenant William Carson McClure, 22, father, William C. McCure, 2923 Guilford Avenue, Indianapolis, Ind.

Second Lieutenant George Beninga, wife, Mrs. Ruth Beninga, Columbia, S.C.; father, Ralph Beninga, Marietta, Minn.

Second Lieutenant Hilary S. Blackwell, 22, mother, Mrs. H.A. Blackwell, 175 1-2 West Channel Road, Santa Monica, Calif.

Corporal Peter J. Biscan, 29, brother, John Briscan, 2511 West Filmore Avenue, Chicago.

The plane was identified late yesterday as a B-25, or Billy Mitchell. The only clue to the identity of the five men found at the scene of the crash was a cap which bore the inscription "George R. Beninga, Columbia Air Base," inside. Searchers found the cap near the twisted wreckage of the plane.

Major George P. Kaine, who arrived from Winston-Salem, N.C., yesterday afternoon, accompanied a party of about 20 men from Bedford to the scene of the accident yesterday afternoon.

The burned and mangled bodies of the five men were removed from the plane to be placed in waiting ambulances on the state highway 43, about five and a half miles from the peak into which the plane crashed.

Only one of the five bodies appeared to offer possibility of recognition. Fragments of an Army uniform could be recognized but insignia and buttons were melted. The bodies were found within a radius of 50 feet of the wreck.

A parachute was found partially open and several parachute flares were found near the crashed plane, indicating that the men attempted to find a landing place just before the bomber struck Sharp Top. The plan's engines could not be found indicating that they may have rolled down the mountain.

The wreckage was discovered by a party beaded by C. O. Updike, Bedford City electrician and guided by Leonard Stanley who lives on the mountain several miles from the scene of the crash.

Searchers reached the plane about 12:30 yesterday morning. It had crashed into the side of the peak with such force that a large rock had been moved out of its place. The spot is about a mile and a quarter southeast of the rocks known as "The Needles Eye," located a few hundred feet below the top of the peak.

Stanley said that he heard the bomber as it passed over his home and thought that it would strike a nearby ridge. He said that the crash "sounded like thunder" and that explosions followed "for 10 or 15 minutes" afterwards.

The Searching party went to Stanley's home and walked two and a half miles further to the scene of the wreck.

The plane, Stanley said, came from the south and then turned west. Its low altitude was noticed in Bedford a short time before the crash. The fire lighted the entire side of the mountain and was plainly visible from the town.

Officers in Bedford were first notified of the crash by Herbert T. Patterson of Pennicks. About a dozen cars from the town snaked up the narrow road as far as they could drive and the searching party later traveled from there on foot.

Clothing of the men and cushions from the plane were still smoldering when the party arrived hours after the wreck had occurred.

George D. Stathers of the Civil Aeronautics Authority office in Roanoke, visited the scene yesterday morning and returned to Roanoke to report his observations to Government officials.

Among the searching party were Glen Ramsey, Ralph Johnson, Dick Synan, R.E. Anderson, Jr. Lloyd Goode and Harold Goode. Gordon Coleman, a highway patrolman, went to the scene early yesterday morning and stayed until late in the afternoon.

The following article was copied (same newspaper) February 7, (Friday) issue 1943:

The bodies of the five army men who perished in a plane crash on the Peaks of Otter Tuesday night have been ordered shipped to their homes, according to the manager of the M. P. Carder Company in Bedford.

Major George P. Kaine and Captain Murray B. Hall of Winston-Salem, N.C., who came to Bedford after the crash, remained there to investigate the accident.

A rescue party of about 30 men worked nearly all night bringing the accident victims down the treacherous mountainside. Following the road leading by the home of Charles Morgan near Penicks, the party headed by Henry F. Turner, chief of the Bedford Fire Company, went to the home of Frank Dooley where the road ends. The men were three hours cutting a three-mile trail up the mountain to the point where the bodies and wreckage lay.

The ground was covered with snow and ice frozen so hard that the men could hardly break a track. They had to climb over and around enormous rocks and trees and thick underbrush halted their progress. In going down the mountain, Turner said the men would often lose their foothold and slide a distance of 50 feet.

Only one of the men might be identified, he said. The other bodies were mangled and dismembered.