Howard Hughes Has Bad Airplane Crash
The Montreal Gazette July 9th, 1946 pg.3
Los Angeles, July 8. – (AP) – Howard Hughes, movie maker and builder of airplanes, clung precariously to life today in the hospital after the crash and explosion of his latest creation, the AF-11, unofficially reported to be the fastest long-range craft ever constructed. The twin-engine monoplane crashed into three houses and a garage in a Beverly Hills residential district late yesterday with Hughes alone at the controls on its maiden flight.
Wreckage from the Crash of Howard Hughes' AF-11 (XF-11) Test Flight
Hughes, with the assistance of an unidentified Marine Sergeant, staggered from the wreckage, was hustled to Beverly Hills Emergency Hospital, and transferred from there to Good Samaritan Hospital for surgery. He was placed in an oxygen tent. Doctors said he had a 50-50 chance to survive. Hughes’ left hand was badly burned, doctors said, and he had a possible broken back, fractured skull, broken leg and punctured lung. Yet, he was conscious about half an hour after the crash.
Arriving at the Emergency Hospital, he calmly announced himself: “I’m Howard Hughes.” Shortly afterward he collapsed.
Hughes’ plane had been in the air 1 ½ hours. He had radioed the control tower at Burbank Airport that his landing gear was not functioning. Twenty-five minutes before the crash, Hughes radioed that he was having engine trouble. He said he was going to make an emergency landing on the Los Angeles Country Club Course. That was the last message from him.
