Piper Super Cruiser with geiger counter crash in southern AZ March 22, 1955

Piper Super Cruiser crash in southern AZ, March 22 1955

Piper Super Cruiser, with geiger counter attached to wing, crashes while looking for uranium.

Prospecting for uranium via a Piper Super Cruiser. In the Atomic Age of the 1950's, uranium was important for the development of nuclear wearpons. There was a "uranium rush" and the Atomic Energy Commission offered financial incentivites for "prospectors" who located new uranium deposits. On the morning of March 22, 1955, two aviators took off from Tucson's Downtown airport in a modified Piper Super Cruiser to search for uranium. The Piper Super Cruiser had a geiger counter attached to the wing. One man flew the aircraft while the other monitored results of the geiger counter. As the aircraft was making a low pass over rough country in the Santa Rita mountains, a wing struck an outcropping causing the aircract to crash and burn.

Special thanks to Dan D for his involvement with the search, and research, of this crash.

Two men lost their lives in the crash:

John Spande Coleman

Aubrey Lee Johnson

Close-up of one one the wheels. The wire wrapped around the wheel are remians of the tire.

Remains of the fuselage. If you look closely, you can see both wheels.

Another view of the skeleton remains of the fuselage.

Melted aluminum at the crash site.

Remains of the firewall partially buried in the ground.