• 52-6148 USAF #1310. L-20 No: 311. Command AF-3. Delivered 22-Sep-1953. Built as L-20A and re-designated U-6A in 1962.
Accident: 29-May-1961. Believed to have crashed. Details unknown.
USAF History
52-6148 was made available on 29-Jul-1953 and accepted on 28-Aug-1953 by the 6600th Air Depot AMO (Air Material Overseas Unit), at Downsview, ON., after which it was delivered to the Air Material Command at Davis Monthan AFB., AZ., where it was placed with the 3040th Air Storage Squadron on 22-Sep-1953. It remained in store until it moved to the San Antonio Air Depot at McLellan AFB, TX., on 07-Jul-1954 and then it was recorded as moving to the San Francisco Point of Embarkation on 23-Sep-1954. It arrived with the 7485th Air Depot Wing at Erding, Germany, on 28-Sep-1954 with an assignment to Air Force Europe.
Its first active location was at Wiesbaden with the 7100th Support Wing after which it moved to Madrid where assigned to the Air Material Overseas Command attached to SPAMA (acronym unknown but obviously relates to Spain and the Air Material Command) and it seems to have been used in support of the building of what became Torrejon Air Base. It arrived on 15-Aug-1956 and understood to have been attached to the 7600th Air Base Group. It was still at the location when it is reported as suffering an accident on 22-Oct-1956 that saw the aircraft crashing into the Mediterranean Sea south west of the Torrejon (Barcelona) airport. The details of any damage are unknown. The report is also interesting in that Torrejon is nowhere the sea. The subsequent record card entry however shows the aircraft still with the Air Material Overseas Command and attached to a unit with the acronym SPNAR from 31-Jan-1957 which was still before Torrejon Air Base was deemed to have been operational by the Strategic Air Command as one of its overseas deployed bases. The record card also seems to refer to a crash on 22-Oct-1961 but no detail has yet surfaced.
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