American Airlines Flight 28 was served by a Douglas DC-3, registration NC16017, powered by two 1,102 horsepower (822 kW) Wright Cyclone engines and full-feathering propellers.

It was piloted by Captain Charles Fred Pedley, 42, who had flown for twelve years with American Airlines, and who had logged over 17,000 hours of flight time.

It was piloted by Lieutenant William Norman Wilson, 25, attached to the Air Transport Command and stationed at Long Beach, California.

His copilot was Staff Sergeant Robert Reed Leicht, also 25, of the Sixth Ferrying Command, Army Air Forces, and also stationed at Long Beach.

It fell from the sky in a flat spin and impacted a rocky ledge in Chino Canyon, below San Jacinto Peak, before crashing into the desert and exploding.

Lieutenant Wilson later testified at his court-martial proceedings that he first realized that the two aircraft had collided when he heard a "noise and a wrenching of my ship up... to my left.

During the inquest, both surviving Army pilots testified that they had seen the airliner, but that they had subsequently lost sight of it when their aircraft flew into smoke from a nearby forest fire.

Long & loud have been their complaints about Ferry Command pilots who hop on & off the airlines' beam without reporting positions to traffic controls.

[1] The CAB determined that the cause of the crash was: The reckless and irresponsible conduct of Lieutenant William N. Wilson in deliberately maneuvering a bomber in dangerous proximity to an airliner in an unjustifiable attempt to attract the attention of the first officer (copilot) of the latter plane.Lt.

On August 5, 1943, the same RB-34, serial number 41-38116, suffered engine failure during a ferry flight and crashed into Wolf Hill near Smithfield, Rhode Island, killing all three crew members.