At 10:45 a.m. on February 5, 1944, 1st Lt. John B. Beatty of Sandusky, OH, and 2d Lt. Earnest W. Fanslau of Mantua, NJ took off from Ainsworth Army Air Field in two P-47 "Thunderbolt" fighter planes for an instrument training flight. Fanslau's canopy was covered so he could fly solely by instruments, while Beatty flew nearby as Fanslau's observer. During the flight, Fanslau made an unexpected right turn that Beatty could not avoid. Rancher Everett Morris did not see the collision, but he heard the impact and saw the planes falling from the sky southeast of his ranch buildings. Beatty's P-47 went into a flat spin, fell almost straight down, and landed on its back with very little scattering of wreckage. Fanslau's P-47 caught fire and exploded in midair, spreading debris over a considerable area. Both pilots were killed. The two crash sites lie within half a mile of each other in the Nebraska Sandhills, about 15 miles south of Wood Lake near Cherry County's eastern border.