Newry topographic map
Interactive map
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About this map
Name: Newry topographic map, elevation, terrain.
Location: Newry, Oxford County, Maine, 04261, United States (44.41796 -70.90423 44.59692 -70.70428)
Average elevation: 392 m
Minimum elevation: 183 m
Maximum elevation: 1,019 m
At 20:15 on June 27, 1960, a United States Air Force tanker of the 380th Air Refueling Squadron departed Plattsburgh AFB to refuel a Strategic Air Command bomber. The Boeing KC-97 Stratofreighter rendezvoused with the B-47 Stratojet bomber at an altitude of 15,500 feet in the Fighting Fox aerial refueling area over Newry. As the bomber maneuvered into refueling position, a lubrication failure caused the tanker's outboard port engine supercharger impeller to disintegrate. Impeller fragments leaving the engine nacelle caused fuel leakage. The bomber observed ignition of the leaking fuel and broke away from formation. The tanker entered a gradual left turn, which became a spiraling spin as the fire rapidly caused structural damage to the port wing. Seven miles away, three hundred people at a Rumford Point drive-in theater observed the tanker spin down, with burning pieces flying off. The fuselage impacted a forested slope of granite boulders and caused a fireball seen fifty miles away in Lewiston. The port wing tip was found in Howard Pond, three miles from the crash site. There were no survivors from the tanker's five-man crew. Wet vegetation limited spread of the fire, but fuel-covered trees were completely consumed and the five-acre hillside wreckage field was discernible for years amid the surrounding forest.