WW II plane crash detritus – Mt. Tamalpais, California
Walking with my family on Mt. Tamalpais last week we spotted this radial engine in the creek. We later discovered it was from a WW II era plane that had crashed on the mountain side. Upon initial research i though that the engine photographed below was the subject of this interesting article from the Marin IJ, however, Bill S, helped verify the following via this web site’s comment forum. He said: “The pictures are of an engine from one of two US Navy Corsair fighter planes that collided in mid-air on a training mission in October of 1945. Both pilots parachuted and survived. The engine shown is in Cataract Creek, below Rock Springs, and there is a second engine and more debris of the second Corsair that fell at a site somewhat further away.
But, this is an entirely different crash incident from that which is the subject of the Marin I-J story that is linked in the original post. That was the US Navy seaplane that crashed in 1944 on the southern slope of Mt. Tamalpais, above Double Bowknot.”
Thank you for the info Bill.
Photos below, click to enlarge.
anthropogen 
What a fascinating story! I read the newspaper link you included and wonder about those Japanese bikes and why inquiries into the crash were blocked during the 1980s. Crazy stuff!
Merry Christmas (belatedly) and Happy New Year to you!
I agree…a very interesting story. Cheers for sharing it with us 🙂
What a beautiful wreckage. That first photograph is reminiscent of a snail’s shell.
The pictures are of an engine from one of two US Navy Corsair fighter planes that collided in mid-air on a training mission in October of 1945. Both pilots parachuted and survived. The engine shown is in Cataract Creek, below Rock Springs, and there is a second engine and more debris of the second Corsair that fell at a site somewhat further away.
But, this is an entirely different crash incident from that which is the subject of the Marin I-J story that is linked in the original post. That was the US Navy seaplane that crashed in 1944 on the southern slope of Mt. Tamalpais, above Double Bowknot.
Thanks for the info and clarification, very interesting… i’ll update the post.
On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 10:36 AM, anthropogen