On October 26, 1927, an air mail flight over the mountains ended in drama when the pilot was forced to parachute through heavy fog near Castaic, surviving a 9,000-foot leap to safety.

Pilot Charles R. “Dick” Bowman, part of the Pacific Air Transport line running from Seattle to Los Angeles, took off in plane #2072 from the Newhall Airport at 1:10 a.m., bound for Bakersfield, Fresno, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle.

Shortly after departure, dense fog blinded the pilot, and his plane became uncontrollable. Bowman bailed out and landed safely, later phoning officials after being missing for more than 11 hours.

In a copy of the “Evening Herald” preserved by the San Diego Aerospace Museum, Bowman shared the following statement:

“Took off from Saugus (north of Los Angeles) storm moving in – _ucked up the carburetor (no heat in those days) at 9,000 feet over the Tehachapi’s, some ice on wings but only 4 or 5 barrels working, rough as heck, lost altitude to 7,000, ball and needle bouncing around so I couldn’t be read. So I knew I had to get off and walk. Landed on top of a peak at 5,500 feet – still in the soup and rain. This was about 2 a.m. Had to wait until dawn to fmd a way down. Some walk. Packed my parachute thru the brush and yucca, finally found a trail at the bottom of a canyon. About 4 or 5 miles later, found a larger canyon and a Mexican family with n old model T Ford. Got to a telephone about 11 a.m. Found the remains (of the plane) about a week later.”

The disappearance of the Ryan M-1 mailplane sparked a massive search effort, with National Guard, postal officials, and pilots from San Francisco and Riverside scouring the Castaic mountains. Company founder Vern C. Gorst even offered a $200 reward for the recovery of the missing mail and aircraft.

After ten days, searchers located the wreckage in the mountains north of Los Angeles. Miraculously, the cargo,  including securities valued at $750,000, was recovered intact, buried in sand near the plane’s shattered engine.

The Ryan M-1 was the same model of aircraft built by T. Claude Ryan’s San Diego factory, which that same year produced Charles Lindbergh’s famous “Spirit of St. Louis.”

The Ryan M-1s were workhorses of early U.S. air mail service, though by 1928, Pacific Air Transport merged into Boeing Air Transport, ending its brief independent operation.

Bowman himself would make headlines a few years after his Castaic mishap. Alongside four other pilots, Captain Bowman, at the helm of a B-40 Boeing biplane, flew into history on July 1, 1930, as they inaugurated overnight United States Air Mail and passenger flight service with a 36-hour flight between Seattle, Washington and San Diego.

Captain Bowman also held the distinction of flying the first transcontinental flight from San Francisco to Boston in 1925.

To read yesterday’s Today in History, click here.

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