AAIR Air Force Accident Reports Search

This database is for USAAF/USAF accident reports from 1918 to 1955. There are some gaps; see our monthly listing page to see what months are currently indexed.

For help on using this database see the notes at the bottom of this page

To order full reports on any of these, go to Order Accident Reports

Database Fields:

1) Date – Date is in YYMMDD (year-month-day) format.  441021 is 1944 October 21st.
2) Aircraft Type
3) Serial Number – Aircraft Serial Number
4) Sqdn – Squadron to which the aircraft was assigned
5) Group – Group to which the aircraft was assigned
6) Home Base – Air Base to which the aircraft was assigned
7) AF – Army Air Force to which the aircraft was assigned
8) Action – Type of accident. See our Action Codes List for what each of these abbreviations mean.
9) D – Damage to aircraft. 1 is minor damage and 4 or 5 means completely destroyed. Initially, the Air Force used a scale of 1 to 5 for damage, but toward the end of 1944 the scale was changed to 1 to 4; however a 5 was still occasionally used. Also, 0 is sometimes used to indicate no damage. In addition to using the number ratings "minor Reports" also use:
W - washout
M- major damage (upper case m)
m- minor damage (lower case m)
O- major overhaul
X- undamaged
BL- Blank (or column is left blank) exact amount of damage not given in report
10) Pilot – Name of the pilot charged with the accident.  This field does not list the entire crew. There may have been more than one pilot onboard, so if you find a name you do not expect, do not be surprised—unless, of course, it was a single seat plane! If you do not find the name you are looking for, or if you are looking for a crewmember other than the pilot, try our Names Database.
11) County – The Country the accident occurred in. See our Country Code List (abbreviations) and use the code to search for all crashes in that country.
12) US State - The US state in which the accident occurred.
13) Location – Be careful using this field, this is the least reliable way to search. If you find the accident, great, but if not, do not give up! Try searching other ways (date, pilot name, home base, etc).  If the crash occurred in between two towns, which one would be listed? It might be neither; the report may list a town farther away, or it may list a different or incorrect place name altogether.