I have a recollection of a military plane crashing into the Sousa Bridge around 1946 and a P-38 crashing at National Airport. Any info?

       — Joe Bowes, Compton, Md.

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       This is the story of three airplanes and two crashes, a story of one very lucky pilot and one very unlucky one.

       The lucky pilot was Lt. Soule T. Bitting from Glenview, Ill. Bitting’s skills as an aviator were unquestioned. He’d been awarded the Navy Cross in World War II for leading a squadron of torpedo bombers that sank a Japanese cruiser in the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

       Around 9 a.m. on Dec. 1, 1947, Bitting took off from Naval Air Station Anacostia in a single-engine TBM Avenger, the type of plane he’d flown in the war. He was ferrying it from Norfolk to Chicago. At an altitude of about 800 feet, the Avenger’s engine started sputtering, then cut out completely.

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       Bitting looked for a place to put the crippled plane down. His first instinct was to ditch the aircraft in the Anacostia, between the 11th Street Bridge and the Sousa Bridge. He later explained to reporters: “I picked the river because I’ve landed ’em in water before [off the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Savo Island].”

       But, said Bitting, “the closer I got, the smaller that opening looked. Then I decided to go over it.”

       As Bitting lifted the nose in an attempt to clear the Sousa Bridge, the Avenger stalled. It struck the southeast corner of the bridge at a 45-degree angle, the left wing catching the bridge railing. The plane spun around and came to rest against the railing on the north side.

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       A red light on Minnesota Avenue had kept traffic on the bridge to a minimum. With part of his plane dangling over the water, Bitting pulled back the cockpit canopy and climbed from the wreckage.

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       Railings on both sides of the bridge were damaged and the glass globes on three lamp posts had been shattered, but Bitting’s only injury was a 1？-inch gash on his forehead.

       Two years later, another pilot was at the controls of a warplane over the capital. Capt. Erick Rios Bridoux was said to be the best pilot in Bolivia. At just 28, he was head of the South American country’s civil aeronautics organization. In the autumn of 1949, Bridoux was in Washington to take possession of a war surplus P-38 Lightning destined for the Bolivian air force.

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       At around 11:30 a.m. on Nov. 1, 1949, Bridoux took off from Washington National Airport in the twin-engine plane. It was to be a test hop before signing off on the purchase and ferrying the P-38 to La Paz.

       An Eastern Airlines DC-4 carrying 51 passengers and a crew of four was scheduled to land at National at 11:45 on its flight from La Guardia. When Bridoux requested permission to land, National’s tower told him to come in “No. 2” — after the airliner — after first executing a 360-degree counterclockwise turn that would give the Eastern plane time to land.

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       Bridoux did not acknowledge the command and started descending steeply toward the runway. A controller in the tower saw the P-38 gaining on the DC-4, which was slower than the fighter plane. Fearing a collision, the controller ordered the Eastern pilot to execute a rapid turn to the left.

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       The airliner had just started turning when Bridoux’s plane descended into it at 300 feet, cutting its fuselage in half. The tail portion landed on the Virginia shore, less than a mile south of the airport. The front and the P-38 fell into the Potomac.

       Bridoux was pulled from the water with a broken back. All 55 people on the DC-4 died. At the time, it was the nation’s deadliest civil aviation disaster. Among those killed were Helen E. Hokinson, a New Yorker cartoonist, and Maine congressman George J. Bates, a supporter of home rule for the District.

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       The weather had been calm, the visibility good. Why had the planes collided?

       Several factors were raised during hearings conducted by the Civil Aeronautics Board. Before the DC-4 started its final approach, a B-25 from Bolling Air Force Base had made a simulated instrument landing at National, possibly leading Bridoux to think the military plane was “No. 1,” not the airliner. Bridoux said he never heard instructions to circle the airport before landing. A CAB pilot who re-created Bridoux’s route in a similar P-38, noted that downward visibility was poor and his left elbow repeatedly hit the radio knob, turning down the volume.

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       In January 1950, the CAB blamed Bridoux for the accident. But five years later, the Bolivian was exonerated when families of the victims were successful in suits against the U.S. government, arguing National’s air traffic controllers had erred, and Eastern Airlines. A jury determined the DC-4 had not been cleared to land.

       Everyone seemed to agree there were too many military aircraft near civilian planes in the skies over Washington.

       Twitter: @johnkelly

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