My grandfather witnessed the wreck of the above P51 Mustang in 1973, and was the first person to the crash site. He pulled Penn Patrick and his French Co-Pilot from the aircraft, both who were deceased. The plane had wrecked on a rock bluff that was accecible with a Jeep on an old cat fire trail, which my grandfather used to get to crash site.

I heard the story a number of times when I was a kid. It is my understanding that Penn Patrick and his Co-pilot were flying up an down Long and High Valley most of the day. The P51 was traveling at or near full speed when my grandfather indicated that the pilot (either Penn Patrick or the co-pilot)had pulled up to fly over the mountain, and had apparently blacked - out due the speed and pitch of the airplane. At that point, the plane rolled over on itself and went into the mountain at full power.

Parts of the fusilage and tail can be seen from our ranch in Long Valley, which is adjacent to Penn Patrick's ranch in High Valley, Clearlake CA.

Bill Patrick had taken off from his High Valley Ranch airstrip with Christian George Hagert in the back jump seat. They had made a few high speed passes over the big house on the hill and lost power and crashed.

My mother and I were at the scene within a few hours along with a bunch of other people. The plane crashed into the side of a hill approx. 300 yards down from a dirt road. For obvious reasons, they would not let us down to the actual crash site. There was no fire, and not much left of the plane.

About a month after the crash I hiked down to the scene. There was a large hole and a few small pieces of the plane left. I brought a piece back with me and still have it to this day.

I have tried to find out more about this accident. Some say it wasn’t an accident and the plane had been tampered with. I have never seen the accident report but very much would like to. If anyone has any information I would appreciate all I can get.

Bill Patrick had taken off from his High Valley Ranch airstrip with Christian George Hagert in the back jump seat. They had made a few high speed passes over the big house on the hill and lost power and crashed.

My mother and I were at the scene within a few hours along with a bunch of other people. The plane crashed into the side of a hill approx. 300 yards down from a dirt road. For obvious reasons, they would not let us down to the actual crash site. There was no fire, and not much left of the plane.

About a month after the crash I hiked down to the scene. There was a large hole and a few small pieces of the plane left. I brought a piece back with me and still have it to this day.

I have tried to find out more about this accident. Some say it wasn’t an accident and the plane had been tampered with. I have never seen the accident report but very much would like to. If anyone has any information I would appreciate all I can get.

I'm afraid Mr Rose's story is not true. Ther was nothing left of the plane, Bill Patrick or Christian Hagert. With all due respect, they had to use DNA to determine which of the few parts they found belonged to who.

I was WPP's best friend for many years, and president of his several companies from 1964 to 1971.

Your mother was Bill's secretary/close friend during the time I was with both of them. But, even as president of Bill's various companies, I always felt it was better to "clear a trip" down the l-o-n-g hallway to Bill's office from mine through your mother, as she was like a "beautiful bulldog," protecting him from "whatever"!

If you'd like to know more about what it was "really like" back in those days, shoot me an email at bfg3@directcon.net, or just call me at (800) 248-3555.

Regardless, understand that she was a beautiful and wonderful woman!

All the best!
BFG3
Ben Gay III
WWW.BFG3.COM
bfg3@directcon.net
(800) 248-3555