This weekend I was working the CAP static display at the Indy Airshow and an older gentleman walked up and said that he had crashed once and was found by one of our aircraft. The only detail I have is his name. How can I find out more to write up a PR?
Good luck. Most ES records are tossed out after 4 years (I believe). Your only hope would be to find it mentioned in a squadron or wing annual historical report (which are very few and far between). If you new the year, you could probably find information on it by reading microfilm of the major newspaper in your area.
You will be much better off if you can get the Tail number for the aircraft.
The FAA and AFRCC and even CAP keep at least a list of the crashes in the CONUS, but they do so by lat/long, and tailnumber
All I have is his name. I guess I'll just send a pic and caption sans story.
That crash finder list is very, very old and out of date, but if you do get a tail number, he is right the FAA accident report might be your best bet and you can search by tail number,.
You might also contact the NTSB with his name and ask them for the crash report...
If you have the date of the incident, or close to it, you can query it here.
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/query.asp
Brian
PAWG