(newspaper name not noted)
March 5, 1941
Vock Canyon
AT-6 Wreck Site
A North American Aviation Corporation advanced training plane crashed in Mohave County,
killing its pilot. Joseph Martinek, aged 28, and a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, came to his death in injuries
received in an airplane crash, according to the verdict of a coroner’s jury at the inquest held in the office of
Judge E. E. Wishon last Friday.
Wishon summoned the coroner’s jury March 5 and the group was taken to the scene of the
accident March 6 under the direction of Wishon, Sheriff Ernest Graham and County Attorney Carl D.
Hammond. The crash site was in Vock Canyon, about 23.4 miles from Kingman by car, and approximately
3.5 miles further on foot. Following an on-scene examination of the aircraft and pilot, Martinek’s body was
turned over to Van Marter Mortuary ambulance for transport to Kingman.
Dr. Walter Brazie examined the body at the mortuary and testified at the inquest that a fractured
skull was the probable cause of death. He further testified Martinek sustained a fractured right arm between
the shoulder and elbow, scalp lacerations and a knee abrasion. Martinek could have been conscious for a
time after the crash with the described injuries, and lived for several hours, Brazie stated. Mortuary
employee William Peck corroborated Brazie’s testimony and stated Martinek’s clothes were wet when he
prepared the body for burial, indicating it had been exposed to either rain or snow.
Martinek worked for North American Aviation Corporation for three months, according to
company official Paul Balford. “Martinek left Kingman at 3:24 a.m. March 1 en-route for Salt Lake City.”
Balford told the Miner. A search was launched that after noon when Martinek failed to report and that
wreckage was sighted from another plane at 9 a.m. March 5. However, another search by plane March 5
failed to locate the wreckage due to dense fog in the canyon.
“In company with several others, Balford stated that he drove to the canyon and began a search on foot and
first sighted the wreckage at 2:40 p.m. on Wednesday” (March 5) “He stated that that no note was found but
that Martinek’s billfold was found on a rock near the plane, his parachute was under the rock and his knee
board was lying near it.”
The radio in Martinek’s Harvard two-seater was reported to be in perfect working order when he left
Kingman by radio mechanic John Ubiha. Mechanic Gaylord Finley also testified that he had checked the
plane before it departed and it was in perfect shape. Word of the crash had first come to light in a story
appearing in the March 6, 1941 issue of the Mohave County Miner
Martinek, a former Trans World Airline pilot, was ferrying his plane from Kingman to Salt Lake City. He
crashed in Vogt Canyon, south of Schrum’s Peak, and about two miles from the Vogt corrals on Homer
Gaddis, range. “From all indications, the pilot hit the peak while attempting to go through the pass on the
way to Las Vegas. He started out from the local air port at 3:45 a.m. last Saturday, one of seven planes
forced back by rain and landed at Las Vegas.” Heavy rain and low hanging clouds that restricted visibility
hampered the early stages of the search for Marinek.
The Miner reported Sheriff Graham had intended to start for the crash site as soon as he received
word of the accident March 5. But he waited until a Civil Aeronautics inspector from Glendale, California
arrived that evening by train, than went to the scene March 6th with the investigator in his party.
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