B-25 Used in 1960 for illegal flight to Cuba

[jmkendall]

Can anyone ID this one? It looks like an ex strafer? It is from the life archives

[aerovin2]

Well, for what it is worth, I went through my listings and did not find any obvious match-ups.

[jmkendall]

Thanks Scott! It thought if anyone could do it, you would. I mean you did write the book on it!

[aerovin2]

Well, I appreciate that. A few clues from the photos being the cowling and carb intake indicating a non-Hayes modified airplane and the solid nose. A few candidates but nothing definitive. Names would help but I could not find any specifics that might tie up with a B-25 incident in 1960. There were some, but not much about it in the available reports.

[jmkendall]

Scott, that cockpit looks pretty stock. Does it give any clues as to whether it was straffer, or not? Are those breakers in the panel to the upper right? I, so far, haven't seen that exact configuration in the wartime photo's I've looked at.

Thanks Again

[aerovin2]

I can't see enough to get a good read on the cockpit. I wonder if there was an article in a Life magazine in 1960 that had more information. I guess find a library and go through 52 issues, maybe.

[jmkendall]

After a fair amount of research I think that the pilot is Pedro Lanz and the B-25 is the Aircraft he flew in late 1959 on a mission to drop leaflets on Havana. It was later reported that he "bombed" Havana. Hower; it was later determined that the damage was caused by the AAA fired at him coming down and hitting buildings and people on the ground. I guess the Communist didn't want to take the blame for hurting thier own people and city.

Lanz's bio states he worked for the CIA and I found a fair number of accounts of a CIA B-25 that made several attacks on the Cuban mainland around 1959 to 1961. This could well be one of them. And if so we may never know what the aircraft is.

A photo from a facebook page on a Missing US pilot. N?036Z and N???5C

Enhanced and unenhanced N??85C maybe

[jmkendall]

FBI 105-107224; FBI 97-4623-NR-150 6.27.63 gives a possible serial number for the far aircraft: N9365C

Of further interest is this pdf:http://www.whatsnextreport.com/uploads/ ... turgis.pdf

Excerted:

On October 27, 1959, (Deleted), Aircraft Review Section, Federal Aviation
Agency, Washington, D.C. made available to S.A. (Deleted) for review, the
file for the North American Model TB-25N, Serial Number 44-288874A,
Registration Number 9876-C. A bill of sale dated October 6, 1958
described the seller and purchaser, respectively, as the U.S. Air Force,
Norton Air Force Base, San Bernardino, California, and Aviation Rental
Service, Fleming Field, South St. Paul, Minnesota. The B-25 was sold for
$2,190. By bill of sale dated April 13, 1959 Aviation Rental Service sold
same to Ben W. Widtfeldt, in care of Biegert Aviation, Sky Harbor,
Phoenix, Arizona. On May 12, 1959, Widtfeldt sold same to FRANK A.
FIORINI, 2160 Southwest 4th Street, Miami, for $1 and other valuable
consideration. FIORINI, as owner, applied for certificate of registration on
May 12, 1959, and received same on July 13, 1959. At this point McDaniel
advised that FIORINI in the company of an unidentified male, appeared
personally at the Federal Aviation Agency, Washington, D.C. to receive
the certificate of registration for this aircraft.
By letter dated September 4, 1959 Carlos B. Fernandez, attorney,
Congress Building, Miami, Florida, who on his letterhead described
himself as "Vice Consul, Uruguay (Hon.)," wrote the Federal Aviation
Agency regarding the above aircraft stating he represented the
Government of Cuba, which is the true and rightful owner of said aircraft.
Fernandez said at the time of the purchase of the aircraft, FIORINI was
acting on behalf of the present Government of Cuba and the funds which
were used to purchase it were provided by the present Government of
Cuba. Fernandez said on behalf of the Government of Cuba he was filing
a suit in the Circuit Court of Dade County STURGIS: "I suspect that the man who sold me the airplane did work for the CIA." On
October 21, 1959 STURGIS and Pedro Diaz Lanz flew a leafleting mission to Cuba. On
October 30, 1959 U.S. Customs impounded STURGIS' B-25 on the grounds the owners
did not obtain an export license for the leaflets.

CARIBBEAN JUNE 25, 1962. Early Thursday morning, 3 unmarked World
War II type B-25 bombers based at an undisclosed Caribbean Island here
successfully penetrated Cuba’s costal defense and scored a daring raid
on the port city of xxxxx. The bomber, piloted by members of BRIGADA
INTERNACIONAL ANTI-COMUNISTA (IACB) flew in off the water at
treetop level dropping 100 pound bombs in several passes over the harbor
area. Explosives and incendiaries ripped into docks, warehouses and
storage bins in the target areas. Amid the fires and confusion machine
guns chattered as one of the aircraft veered off to a pre-arranged drop
zone and parachuted foods, leaflets and medical supplies in the

[jmkendall]

That document is really interesting and if true would mean that the last bombing missions flow by the B-25 were done by Civil B-25s based in the US. Very interesting reading. Highly recommended.
In another record Lanz states he bought his B-25 in Phoenix Ar in 1958 for $5000, but it was in Stugis' name because Lanz was not a citizen. Sturgis reported paying $10,000 for the aircraft and $112,000 for a C-46

[aerovin2]

The color photo you posted would appear to be of N9865C (44-28834), an ex-Western Air Industries air tanker. The distinctive paint scheme matches other photos of that airplane. Its use between its surplus sale in October 1958 and August 1963 is pretty well documented. The civil record shows it had gone through several owners after it was owned by Western Air (later Aero Union) but in August 1963 was sold to Hollywood Air of Miami, Florida. If all this is correct, the date of this photo would be post August 1963. This airplane, if it is N9865C, still survives and is displayed at Grand Forks AFB in North Dakota.

[aerovin2]

All the other information in these recent posts is very interesting. The reference to N9876C matches up to what I have in the B-25 book for 44-28874. As indicated in the posting, Frank Fiorini purchased the airplane (according the civil file) in May 1959. It may have been seized, but in May 1961 is was sold via lien sale to L.B. Smith Aircraft Corp, and then sold to Carolina Aircraft of Durham, NC, in June 1961, then to April 1962 to Tropical Export Trading Co. of Ft. Lauderdale, FL, then to Caribbean Cargoes of Miami in May 1962. It's paperwork trail then ended; no further record. The FAA cancelled the registration in 1970 in a clean up effort.

As for the other aircraft in the color photo, it looks to me to be N9076Z, which would make it 44-30772. This airplane was sold surplus in December 1959. First civil owner was Maurice Young of Rio Grande, NJ, then immediately to Aero Insect Control, Rio Grande, NJ, then in June 1964 to James Range, College Park, GA, then in August 1964 to Walnico Inc, of Miami Beach, FL. Sold in March 1965 to Nico Inc of Miami. Reported to have been impounded in Paraguay in March 1972.

Based on this, I think that photo was post August 1964 at Miami as that would square up with Miami area owners.

[jmkendall]

Thanks Scott! It was fun doing the research. I suspect there is enough here for a fun article to be published somewhere. Unfortunately I like to dig not write.

[aerovin2]

My interest in intrigued...more research to do and, who knows, if I can find some usable photos, maybe an article.

[dutchb25]

Most interesting....will try to find a link to a B-25 crash in the Caribbean that has my attention...

[dutchb25]

Further to my post of last Friday: I try to find the ID of a B-25 that crashed in 1964 at the airfield of Kingston Jamaica. "Our" B-25 with serial 44-9507, then registered N3698G, landed at Kingston a few months after the crash on a flight from Peru back to the Mainland of USA, Columbus OH to be more accurate. The ID of that crashedB-25 is unknown.
Is there a link between that crashed B-25 at Kingston and the B-25(s) mentioned in this story?