Alan Magee
Alan Eugene Magee | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 13, 1919 Staff Sergeant |
| Unit | 303rd Bomb Group, Eighth Air Force |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
| Awards | Air Medal Purple Heart |
Alan Eugene Magee (January 13, 1919 – December 20, 2003) was an American
Military career and fall
Immediately after the
On January 3, 1943, his Flying Fortress—B-17F-27-BO, 41-24620, nicknamed "Snap! Crackle! Pop!"
Magee left his ball turret when it became inoperative after being damaged by German
Magee was taken as a prisoner of war and given medical treatment by his captors. He had 28 shrapnel wounds in addition to his injuries from the fall: several broken bones, severe damage to his nose and eye, lung and kidney damage, and a nearly severed right arm.
Magee was liberated in May 1945 and received the Air Medal for meritorious conduct and the Purple Heart. On January 3, 1993, the 50th anniversary of the attack, the people of St. Nazaire honored Magee and the crew of his bomber by erecting a 6-foot-tall (1.8 m) memorial to them.
Personal life
 |
Magee was born in Plainfield, New Jersey, as the youngest of six children.
After the war, he earned his pilot's license and worked in the airline industry in a variety of roles. He retired in 1979 and moved to northern New Mexico. He died in San Angelo, Texas, on December 20, 2003, from stroke and kidney failure, at the age of 84.
See also
- Fall survivors
- Avro Lancaster B Mk. IIcrewman who survived falling from his burning aircraft in 1944
- Ivan Chisov, Soviet Air Force lieutenant who survived falling from his Ilyushin Il-4 bomber in 1942
- Juliane Koepcke, German teenager who survived a 3,000-metre (9,800 ft) fall after her Lockheed Electra flight broke up over the Peruvian Amazon.
- Vesna Vulović, Serbian flight attendant who survived the mid-air bombing of her McDonnell Douglas DC-9 in 1972 and holds the world record for surviving the highest fall without a parachute
- Other
- Freefall
- List of sole survivors of aviation accidents or incidents
References
- ^ Nye, Logan. "The story of the World War II gunner who fell 22,000 feet without a parachute and lived". Business Insider.
- ^ B-17 #41-24620 "snap! crackle pop!" aircraft information from 303rdbg.com, Magee's unit.
- ^ "Alan Magee Story". 303rdbg.com. 1943-01-03. Retrieved 2010-05-08.